


Wolfen Howl

by Arkenn



Category: RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, POV Third Person, Supernatural Elements, mostly canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-13 22:01:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 104,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5718673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkenn/pseuds/Arkenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Grimm which haunt the cities of Remnant are as old as history itself. Their young are reckless, their aged are cautious, and the most ancient of all do learn. A White Wolf among Beowolves has nurtured its fear into inquisitiveness, and has found itself with a chance to learn for itself the properties of dust, blade, and machines. This is the story of the learnings of a beast, and its triumphs among man. May the beast slumber 'till...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Observations

**Author's Note:**

> This work is a cross-post from Fanfiction.net, you can find all chapters on that website and the formatting might be a little better than what I can do here. All chapters will be posted simultaneously though, so if you prefer this site to that you can be sure you're not missing out on anything. 
> 
> This fic tries to follow the progress of the series while maintaining its divergent elements. Expect changes in the seasons of the show to affect the postings and the stories here accordingly.

**This Fanfic begins during the events of Volume 2 Episode 11, and continues from there.**

There was barely the rustling of leaves as the pack of beowolves slunk through the greenery. The thick underbrush banked the animal trails made by mortal souls, the thin access forcing the beasts to be careful in their stealth. They had been tracking for three days now since the anger of several faunus had stormed over the hills into their traditional territory, and despite the hesitance of the pack leader they were making haste to the source.

The young were salivating as they closed the distance to the outside of the deserted Vale settlement. It was supposedly empty though a taste in the air betrayed recent occupation. Powdered ash tickled their sensitive noses, as well as the stench of man.

A scout had returned hours ago with no news, however. Naught a man nor animal had been seen anywhere nearby, and with a lack of imminent opposition it seemed a folly to not at least investigate. Humans hadn't been seen in these parts for years, not as long as any of the pack remembered. If they were moving outward again it was worth a look.

The procession paused for a moment as a rumbling echoed under their feet, a sort of thunderous vibration. They looked to each other for a scant moment as it passed by, then silence.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three.

_Boom._

The ground cracked below, the parting of stone and clay went from a thin line to a chasm in moments. Some of the grimm tried to step back, recoiling from the meaningless destruction of the land at their feet. Some were too slow, however, and they fell into the darkness with growls and whines of surprise.

Air escaped from the tunnel and the pack leader could smell the scent of man, several of them, as well as the poisonous 'dust' being expended. There were several children of man, or so it could tell, though despite a warning growl the rest of its pack had leapt down into the dark abyss with bloodlust in their eyes. They were in the hold of instinct, and within seconds the lone beowolf standing on the edge was alone.

Disgust curled the lip of the white-and-red grimm, teeth baring as it snarled in anger. It could sense the foolishness of the deed. This was hardly some caravanning troupe making the mistake of crossing into their territory, this was the scent of weapons, of fire, of dust. These scents were danger, they were the means of war, the man's barricade against tooth and claw.

Vale had stood tall against impending doom for centuries. It would definitely stand now, and it would be a slaughter.

Feeling nothing akin to fear, but still more than wary of the dangers posed by the darkness below, it made a risky choice. Linking talons into a branch at its side, the Beowolf swung itself into the tunnel, landing with a loud crack as sheets of metal below gave way under its weight. The short drop was jarring, but not painful to the grimm. It turned to inspect the mass of metal and found it was standing on top of one of humanity's weapons of war, a large bipedal monster…

Tiling its head it clicked a claw against the metal, listening for the noise it made. Unlike stone this material rang when struck, and for a long time the beasts of the wilds around Vale knew the material by the noise it made when rapped. Curiously, it smelled out the blood that was hanging in the air, finding it in a small pool near the protrusion from the front of the monster.

Then, quietly it curled claws under sections of armor and with great heaves tore the metal from the frame of the mechanical beast. Searching, sniffing after a short minute it had pried the faunus from the metal cage.

Dead.

Without care for the body the Grimm tossed the man aside and more closely inspected the wreckage of the paladin. The metal was thick but malleable, and after pulling on the armor covering the shoulder for a few seconds the metal gave way. More investigation found dust residue near the guns, telling the wolf where the dangerous regions of the mech were.

Once the curiosity was sated the beast hauled its armored frame off of the paladin and after pulling itself straight off the ground to its full eight foot height it could hear the sounds of other grimm pouring into the tunnel and sprinting in the direction of a great clamour. After giving one last look to the faunus the leader sprinted down the tunnel on all fours. The throng of different grimm slowed it down as the mass of murderous wolves, bears and hogs scrambled towards their feast.

Slowing for a moment the beowolf hopped onto its rear paws and peered down the tunnel as the train approached the barrier which kept the tunnel sealed off from Vale. Red eyes narrowed as swift boarbatusks closed in on the final carriage in the row.

Right as the first grimm approached the rear end of the car the front end of the train collided at full speed with the concrete barrier.

Immediately a massive plume of smoke shot through the cave towards the grim along with the din of twisting metal and cracking stone. The white wolf covered its eyes with a paw and closed its mouth as the dust shot along, while other younger grimm howled in anger as the fine grounds clogged their noses and eyes. The king Taijitu was the loudest of these and it lunged down towards the surface with enough force to send some Grimm into the walls in its anger. Some of the more unfortunate ones were slammed along with the head of the great snake into the rubble that divided the tunnel from the inside of Vale, and the force shook the ground a second time.

The wolf stayed back for a moment, though with the scent of fear in the air from the Vale citizens riling its blood hesitance turned to intrigue and the wolf leapt onto the train to get ahead of the rabble scrambling for a chance to drink in blood.

Entering the bright light of Vale the beowolf peered into the gathering crowd at the square. Humans of various ages were staring mouths agape at the Grimm as they escaped though were quick to turn and run once the gravity of the situation dawned on them. The wolf stood on its hind legs glaring at the goings on, the beowolves chasing down men and women, the boarbatusks wrecking cars and a death stalker snapping at the humans trapped in an alleyway. The Grimm were on the slaughter.

As it took a step down from the mouth of the tunnel it glimpsed in the corner of its eye four young women pulling themselves from the ground and watching the terror unfold. The grimm was put on guard for the fact that it had not sensed the humans before, as they emitted no fear, hatred, or hysteria. Trace guilt hung in the air, thick but being rejected. The Grimm looked closer and saw at the waist of all the women a weapon. A sniff of the air and dust could be found meaning that the women were armed with no ordinary weaponry.

Outnumbered personally the Grimm fell onto its haunches and watched closely as the four women readied their weapons and began hollering at the grimm, anger being projected in their voices to try and grab the attention of the riot which was occurring all around them. Ironically, as their first attempts failed their resulting anger and guilt drew more and more attention until all the Grimm in the area bar the boarbatusks and death seekers were gathering around the podium they had run to in the centre of the square. The Wolf saw this as a pointless venture, mostly through the lens of an easy kill, though once they began fighting the confidence turned to suspicion.

It had seen in its life various individuals holding the power of such weapons, be them swords or maces or bludgeons, and their strength stood as foe to the supremacy of the pack, but the young here wielding their weapons appeared much stronger than most. Two short blades, gauntlets like blunt claws and a final blade like the arch of a seeker's claw.

Fear edged into the wolf as it watched each woman cut through a half dozen wolves each without diminishing in their strength. As individuals they appeared to be formidable, and with cursory glances at each they were juggernauts in their own right.

But were they?

The wolf peered at each of the fighters to learn their styles and after a few minutes watching each was noticing patterns. The one fighting with fists relied on a forwards bludgeoning to beat the enemy into submission using her brute strength and swift strikes to devastate the grimm. The red one, the one with the strange blade was using her incredible sped to swiftly slash at her foes. The heavy blade she held seemed important as her small frame could hardly carry momentum on its own.

The last two were particularly troubling as one seemed to duplicate at will while the other filled the air with the stench of dust. The dust ignited an instinctual fear deeply seated in the core of the wolf and without understanding of its nature aside from the nonsense occurring around the symbols the white one created being of dust's nature.

A wolf could fight blade, but the unnatural was impossible to predict through the instinct of the grimm, and as the wolf slid away from the taijitu to avoid detection as the grimm began to thin. The women who had only been attacking those who approached them at first were now piercing into the waves of grimm and, most importantly, separating. The yellow and red women were splitting away. The red one was unknowingly moving towards the wolf and as the beast crept forwards it kept eyes on the rest who were dealing with their own opponents.

Clawed fingers arched before curling in like the knuckles of a gorilla to keep them sharp. Just before the wolf could leap the taijitu was attacked by a soaring human who had flown like a bird through the air to crack the skull of the beast with ease. The attack distracted the red human and the grimm made its move and dashed across the stairs.

As grimm age the amount of white exoskeleton covering their body increased to combat the weapons of man. Some grow spines along their backs to ward of a strike to the spine, others protection about the head like a taijitu if that was their preferred mode of attack. As a grimm got older and older, however, the amount of armor would shift from specific to universal. As such the white streak of the wolf, pure white with red markings and armored from head to toe in this carapace was built for speed and protection as opposed to offensive prowess. It was a mere blur on the field as it grabbed Ruby Rose and leapt onto the nearest building.

The strike was carefully calculated in a way, the left arm came forward to grab the outside edge of the blade to prevent laceration while the right grabbed the woman by the waist and hoisted her alongside as he crossed the distance between ground and two stories up.

Upon landing he tugged forcefully on the blade wrenching it from the red one's grip before pushing her a fair distance away onto her rear. While she looked around surprised the beowolf held up the weapon and inspected the mechanism of the blade, sniffing along the staff end to find where the dust was inserted before finding where the barrel was near the base of the blade. It was careful not to press anything resembling a switch, or make any sudden movements with it as the child seemed to do to collapse it.

"Ugh….uh…" Ruby looked about confusedly as she recovered from the sudden vertigo. She was used to high speeds but when she wanted them, not when they came out of nowhere. "Why am I up…?"

The peered over the edge where she was sitting and made a short squealing noise before pinwheeling her arms to keep herself from falling the distance. She scrambled backwards from the edge and pulled herself up before turning and finding herself mere feet away from a very bizarre looking beowolf.

Which was carrying her crescent rose. _Two times in like, four hours! Why does this keep happening to me?!_

"Nice wolfy..." She said in a high pitched tone as if she were faced with an unruly dog. She kept her eyes trained on the scythe though she periodically hazarded a glance at the red eyes. "Just… put down the weapon, go fetch something, find a nice hole to dig… Eheheh."

Her nervous giggle seemed to gain some sort of attention and after pausing the Grimm looked up from the weapon to deliver a glare with empty eyes.

"Or wait a little longer, that's OK, uh, just give rose back to me when you're done…" She shifted from side to side glancing from her position on the roof down to where the fighting was on the ground. She could see the rest of team RWBY fighting for everyone else just down in the square but she was stuck with some beowolf who didn't know the firing end of the weapon from the holster.

Tch-Chick.

"Eh?"

She had been distracted just a moment but the beowolf had in that moment figured out how to load a round into the barrel of Crescent Rose. It then lifted with one hand the weapon into the air as if to fire a shot straight into the sky before bringing it down in an ark with the barrel facing RWBY. Instinctively she shifted to the side at high speed.

_Alright, maybe it does know something._

"Ruby!" Shouted another of the children, her voice equal parts horrified and surprised when it reached the pair on the roof. The Beowolf turned its head instantly to the direction of the shout and though its hackles raised with the approach of the yellow one no fear gripped it. The four were close combatants and man had a weakness for fellow man.

The Beowolf was finished with the scythe as it had learned all it could from the observations it made of the red one. It had found the trigger though keeping awareness of noise at the forefront it had avoided it lest the humans below feel the need to attack. As it turned out the grimm had no need to reserve itself as mere moments after the cry the flaming body of Yang barely missed the wolf. Knowing that a fight between the two women would be stacked against it the wolf flicked crescent rose like he had seen the red one do and after it had collapsed threw it into the traffic of grimm below being fought by some newcomers.

Escape was now on its mind as floating islands began to approach from the waters. Dodging away from a strike of fire and launching itself to another roof the grimm sprinted at full speed on all fours in the opposite direction of the flying machines before making a steep right dodging through panicking humans to scale a wall and watch the continuing battle.

With the speed of relocation the yellow one did not give chase, or perhaps was more concerned with the wellbeing of the red one as they both still stood on the rooftop. Hiding in the shadows the grimm was well out of sight but shifted farther back when the gaze of one of them crossed its hiding spot. As the giant ships began to mow down the remaining grim and one of the women with a massive weapon began to shoot down Nevermores flying above. It was clear that the grimm in their bloodlust had unsettled the population but the swift response of man had cut the fighting short.

What was more distressing was the fact that another of the humans had passed near the hole in the ground and sealed it in a few moments effectively locking the wolf inside Vale. It growled quietly trying to hide the sound as people moved about below to try and see what was happening in the lower quarters.

The red weapon was not difficult to figure out, and the beowolf had already determined the properties and functions of it, though not the technique. For any future attack against these humans the rest of these weapons would have to be inspected for mechanics. To understand how the weapon works would be how to understand the techniques necessary to combat them. To fight man, the wolf would need to learn the secrets of man.


	2. Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Beowolf stalks its way through Vale, the first time it has ever seen the inside of one of the Human Kingdoms.

**The same night…**

**Ruby Rose:**

The restless huntress stared into the darkness of her room as she wrestled with the call of sleep and the wont to got to the headmaster with what she saw a few hours ago. It was hardly regular for a grimm to do… Anything like what she had seen really. She had wanted to go to Ozpin directly, but had found that he was currently 'occupied' with some business with Atlas.

She supposed it could wait. Even if she wanted to ask everybody in earshot what it meant, she didn't really think it was a good idea to start spreading information about a potentially rogue Beowolf. In the city no less. It could lead to a panic, which nobody wanted, least of all her.

Rolling on her side Ruby spoke softly as to not wake up Weiss (her sister was more akin to a brick while unconscious, meaning she didn't care as much about her), "Hey Blake...?"

She got a grumble in response from the faunus, who didn't move to do anything aside from roll farther away from the sound of her teammate. She mumbled something about finding something in the morning, or maybe that Ruby should be paying more attention in class. Ruby couldn't really tell, and with a sigh she resolved to put the business aside for the day.

_Well, maybe one of Blake's books would have something…?_

**Beowolf:**

Humans, it turned out, weren't that attentive.

Or maybe it was just the flock which had that particular issue, since the shepherds seemed to be much more… _Complicated_ to avoid.

The wolf had no exact end-point in mind for its loping. It had no idea, really, where it could go within the massive maze which was the city proper. It had a general idea of how best to move from street to street, following the ample shadows made by the steep walls of the brick and mortar buildings. The odd side-alley was utilized for a quick dash, or to hide, and acted as the sole direction the beast used.

It knew, or more accurately remembered, that the outer walls of vale were more 'fortress-y'. It had no idea if it would be easier to get out than it was to get in. Would the humans expect to find beasts in their own citadels, or would they be just as suspicious?

It was a difficult conundrum. The sort of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario was frustrating. It knew that at one end of the city, where the humans burned a significant amount of their Dust, there was a tall cliff which had long acted as a natural barrier to keep grimm from scaling it. Even the most tenacious of their kind tended to the forests below the cliffs, not daring to attempt to scale them. It would be difficult to climb down, and the plateau itself would probably be no less treacherous than the wall.

Again, damned if it did, damned if it didn't. It couldn't stay in the city forever. And it didn't want to.

But… If there was something that was able to tempt the beast it was the plethora of different devices in the city that used dust technology to power their mechanisms. Whenever it had the time and the cover it would sniff out the dust and crack open whatever the item was. It had little time for most objects, and some had complex internal systems which were impossible to comprehend.

A particularly frustrating occurrence was when it approached a device and it lit up without warning. The constant worry of being found made those devices particularly trying.

Leaving a trail of municipal property damage behind it, the beast made a slow trek towards the soaring spires of Beacon, red eyes peering from the darkness at all the creations of man with inhuman curiosity.

**Ruby:**

Maybe she should have waited for Blake to explain it in the morning.

Ruby was still up scanning through the highlighted sections of a book on the modern history of Grimm conflicts in the kingdoms. She was sure there was a point in the book that was supposed to be interesting but thus far she was coming up with nothing relevant and a little bit of a headache. Was what she was looking for even in the book? It was a history book, not a biology book, why would it have what she was looking for in it?

She stopped her internal rambling before it prevented her from actually getting through the text.

It took another fifteen minutes but a story about a huge boarbatusk caught her eye and put her on the right track. It recounted how two huntsmen clearing out the forest near a settlement came across a boarbatusk that was several times larger than the average grimm and wary of approaching the two. Since they needed to clear the forest regardless of whether or not the beast was violent now they tried to kill it only for it to run off.

Ten years later the same boarbatusk, but slightly larger with much more developed grimm markings attacked the settlement leveling several houses before the same hunters could put the beast down. In the course of the ten years the boarbatusk had grown noticeably and also become much more resilient to the weapons being used by the hunters which had injured it before.

There were some historical anecdotes from people who lived in the town, or responded to the call for help, but most of them were in an old-timey speech style which she found a bit hard to internalize. That and they seemed generally hysterical. Not exactly the most informative, she decided.

That was until she saw the posted response from a researcher who was partner on the compiled book, their observations making much more sense.

_"Grimm have shown a remarkable ability to adapt over their seemingly limitless life spans. Over the course of centuries a grimm may develop a wide range of defensive and offensive capabilities which allow them to better attack human strongholds. While these traits to not appear to be inherited (as 'young' grimm rarely show features of 'old' grimm) they seem to develop along similar lines. Examples of this are nevermores, which despite inhabiting varied regions of remnant all develop the ability to launch their own feathers as projectiles._

__While the body of grimm are complex, their minds are not. Grim who encounter human defenses and survive may rapidly come to understand them and be wary of them. This defensive 'fear' however only develops into tactics of how to overrun defenses, and through their age will develop a much more talented approach to the decimation of human and faunal strongholds._ _

___Open questions about 'intelligence' remain. Species of corvus have shown advanced skills with tools provided, fashioning what they need from the environment as lures and hammers. No in-depth study has ever been taken to the grimm to see if they show similar adaptations, and it is doubtful that we will have any meaningful proof of such an intelligence._ _ _

____For now, the minds of the grimm are beyond the comprehension of man._ _ _ _

____"Well… That's a bit scary." Ruby mumbled to herself before shutting the book again. She laid back in her bed staring at the ceiling as she contemplated what the words meant. A Grimm learns to wait for an opportunity, trying to understand how best to counter their prey; people._ _ _ _

____According to the book the wolf should have either avoided Ruby or killed her, not taken a moment to try and understand the weapon she was using, let alone figure it out. Unless it was old, she supposed. But then it wouldn't have been so brazen, would it? She would be dead if a typical borbatusk had caught her off-guard and without weapon, so what had happened with the beowolf?_ _ _ _

____Fiddlesticks. She thought to herself before pulling herself upright again and opening the book a second time, flipping to her page and leafing through a few more details that seemed more territory related than anything._ _ _ _

____Eventually she came to developments and a few diagrams. They weren't terribly accurate – that or they were smudged before re-printing – but got the general point across. The image she was looking at depicted the mask of a grimm._ _ _ _

_____"The physical developments of each grimm can vary quite wildly as mentioned earlier in the chapter, however their morphisms tend to related to their Grimm Masque and the development of it across the body. As a grimm ages and develops its resilience the same white material which makes up their mask will start to cover other regions of the body, often as scales on taijitsu, spines on beowolves and larger tusks on boarbatusks. Within twenty and one hundred years the number and strength of these features will increase. In the rare case that a smaller Grimm such as a beowolf grows to be centuries old regions of their bodies will become increasingly encased. This armor has different claims of strength, though it is universally recognized that any grimm covered in any armor of that sort is to be treated with extreme caution. It is both a symbol of age and survivability."_ _ _ _ _

____That explained the look of the animal, at the very least. But with a turn of the page the book switched over to another topic, leaving old grimm behind in the inked pages before. It looked like she had just hit a bit of a dead end in her search for information, if only for the moment._ _ _ _

____She wasn't happy with that answer by any stretch. She had seen beowolves with spines, though Ursa and Ursa Major were more likely to have them. They were stronger, sure, just like the book said but she hadn't seen them do anything really… Smart._ _ _ _

____"Oobleck would know." Ruby decided, remembering the comment the professor had made about the goliaths the day before. Happy with that, or at least accepting that it was unlikely she would learn anything new that night, she rolled over and passed out promptly._ _ _ _

____**Beowolf:** _ _ _ _

____he beowolf was hiding out of sight near the river, eyes trained on a human fiddling with a box beside the bridge which connected the commercial and residential districts. The buildings thinned out near the embankment giving way to a broad concrete sidewalk with trees at regular intervals. The lack of buildings meant that no thick darkness could hide the beast, and the trees would be no camouflage to the large form._ _ _ _

____Interest piqued though as the human cursed and went down on one knee to peer into the contraption. He was completely oblivious to the fact there was a grimm right behind him, and the wolf could tell that from the lack of fear in the air._ _ _ _

____Glancing left and right to be sure no one was walking towards him it paused before dashing at high speed across the brickwork, its claws retracted so only the light thudding of a heavy body could be heard. If the man turned it would kill him and toss him into the water, if not then this was an opportunity to see whatever the dust mechanism was._ _ _ _

____Coming to a half mere inches behind the engineer, and staggered to the side to prevent the shadow in the moonlight from giving away its location. The human was switching around vials of dust – unfortunately testing the grimm – and poking at different parts of the machinery. Every once in a few seconds he would reach over and type something in a holographic display, a creaking groan, then nothing. Every time the keypad lit up the grimm had to resist the urge to strike the human away. More of human creations appearing without warning._ _ _ _

____Eventually after a short time the engineer shook his head and mumbled something, standing sharply and rolling his arms backwards. Pressing his hands behind his lower back the man tilted backwards until he was face to face with the ghostly mask of the wolf. Eyes closed the man had no idea he was breathing in the face of death._ _ _ _

____The grimm for its interest was finding very little useful. The human was taking different vials of dust and different small pieces of metal and connecting them in different arrangements. The key component was dust, however, as while the human traded out the metal pieces regularly the dust was only swapped, not discarded. So their technologies all depended on the crystal? For the grimm who had seen very little of the workings of man's machines this still made it cautious._ _ _ _

____The night was wearing on but there were still hours until sunrise, so the wolf followed the engineer part of the way into the residential district before cataloguing the scent. If the wolf needed to find a human with an understanding of their things he would suffice._ _ _ _

____Not wanting to linger in the district as there were other machines patrolling the streets, the grimm retreated back to the riverbank and reached the cliff. It was a natural barrier to most grimm that could not fly, as the sheer cliff had few rocky outcroppings, though it was more to keep the animals out of Vale and in the highlands. Either way it created a problem for the grimm as it scanned along the cliff for an adequate path up. There were smaller cliffs and ridges elsewhere in the city but with the distance it had traveled any further detour would be a waste of time. It may not have the best coloration for nighttime travel but it was much worse when there were more humans to see._ _ _ _

____Seeing no direct route up the beowolf approached the base of the cliff and searched for whatever alternate route the humans used. From its hiding spot earlier that day it saw floating machines carry the humans up to the cliff but alternate routes could also exist._ _ _ _

____As it searched it heard the distant footsteps of another group of humans and it dashed swiftly to the side to avoid detection. Deep in the alleyway only its eyes shined, and those eyes followed the movements of three humans of different statures approaching the cliff. They were speaking quietly amongst each other though they stopped once they arrived at a small building recessed among the stone._ _ _ _

____Once they had entered the wolf dashed back out from its hiding spot and stood near the doorway to listen for what might be happening inside. Four chirps sounded of different tones before a sound like whooshing air. Clicks, a sound like a smooth rock being drawn across wet grass, footsteps, the sound of sliding again, then the whooshing of air. A symmetrical sound._ _ _ _

____The feelings which had been echoing from the three, malice, annoyance, pride swiftly dissipated. Not snuffed like a human had overcome themselves or suppressed themselves, just that some great distance had been crossed quickly._ _ _ _

____Carefully crossing the doorway into a long hall the wolf crept down the passageway to a sleek metal wall with an outcropping just to the side of it made of some metallic compound. Approaching what appeared to be the doorway the fixture to the side of it lit up and a tune played. The wolf bit down a snarl that would have turned into a roar at the seemingly random appearance of the holographic interface. Again, human technology was creating things without origin and that unsettled some deep part of the grimm's psyche._ _ _ _

____The tune played and some human words spoken before screen shifted from some symbol to a set of nine squares. The door did not open as the wolf had expected, and instead the holograph flashed three times to gain attention. The grimm peered down at the device and the squares which pulsed before showing human fingerprints pressing on one or another._ _ _ _

____The grimm lifted its paw and with the end of one claw pressed one of the buttons. It rung immediately with a chirping tone before it stopped again. Immediately satisfaction washed over the grimm mixed with some concern. It pressed another button and yet another tone played. Twice more and then a loud buzzing noise, harsh on the ears played before the woman said something again._ _ _ _

____Pressing the first button again the tone was the same. It took only one more cycle for the grimm to determine that the buttons were all tone related. The difficulty was the order though it remembered the sound from earlier. Like a nighthawk's young._ _ _ _

____Low, low-mid, mid, high_ _ _ _

____The combination determined, there was another whooshing of air before the metal sheet slid to one side to show another platform. The Grimm entered it to find the scent of dozens of humans staining the walls and floor, enough to almost make it gag on nothingness. Once it had stepped on the lift began to ascend and the beowolf fell onto all fours, spreading itself out as fear gripped its mind. The sudden movements surprised it and for the short time it was moving the wolf could barely tell if it was moving upwards, or sideways, or had fallen into some trap. Only once the door opened to the grasses above the cliff the grimm was almost as viscerally gripped with relief. Pulling itself from the platform it looked down to the sprawl of vale below before turning to see the rising spires of beacon. It sniffed the air to find the scents of dozens of humans and the stench of dust._ _ _ _

____It had found them._ _ _ _


	3. Answers?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Beowolf continues to observe the realm of Vale, while Ruby attempts to surreptitiously investigate what she saw the day before.

**The next day…**

The area around the buildings had several places a grimm could hide during the day. Greenery surrounded the front approach while a forest in behind the facility provided ample cover. As far as the wolf could tell there were no grimm inhabiting the area as neither scent nor marking of any genera of the beasts were present. The forest below the facility, on the plateau to the east, did show signs of being sparsely populated from the cries that rose from the treetops during the night.

Whatever grimm had originally inhabited the local forests had been driven out and down the cliffs.

It made sense, and the wolf skirted these cliffsides for any signs one could scale them. The steep sides, along with the ease of sight made it unlikely any grimm could effectively attack the buildings in any great number. Further complicating things were the odd set of robotic guards making rounds near the forest lines searching for any stray trespassers. So far the beowolf had been able to avoid them, though they had a strength that man did not, scent. A grimm like the wolf could scent the trace fear one someone from a fair distance, and physically smell them from a much greater displacement. The machines stank of dust, but with the amount of dust being expended atop the hill they hardly stood out amongst the menagerie of odors.

So the wolf tried to keep to the treetops as it searched around the outskirts of the buildings. It was pressing its luck, it knew neither the weakness nor the mechanisms of the robotic guards and though it could simply crush them, whether that would _kill_ them was another question. Such things would have to wait, it did not sneak through the entire kingdom to toss itself from a mountain like a common dog to avoid death or capture.

It planned to hide amongst the trees for a day while it listened to the activities within. It may not know where one could hide yet but during the night there would be ample time to find a crevasse or rooftop ill patrolled.

The sounds were muddled through walls and distance, and the arrangement of some of the buildings made eerie echoes. Without understanding of the human language aside from tone and intent the wolf was at a disadvantage, but the sounds of training and clashing blades eventually caught the attention of the beast. Humans can mean what they will, and their patterns may be their greatest weakness, but how to fight the shepherds of man stood higher order than idle listening.

Waiting for the most recent set of guards to pass, the wolf slid down from its perch and moved perpendicular to the sound to try and get a better sense of where the sound was coming from. The difference between the first sounds and the second gave it the general location. It turned to step into the denser regions of the forest to take a more roundabout route but there was a sudden pressure on its back.

A growl was heard when the grimm turned, and though it was initially surprised by the sound it was dulled to curiosity as a white and black furry mass attempted to headbutt it in the chest.

Curling a lip the beowolf grabbed the dog and picked it up by its scruff, holding it arms distance away from its body and peering and the squirming animal. It was grumbling angrily and attempting to nip at the wolf but a stern shake forced it to stop.

A dog among humans. The grimm held the dog up and its mouth shut with a large hand while turning the animal over to inspect the body. It began glowing softly, and it tried to writhe again. The beowolf resisted the urge to snap the animal's neck right then and there. It would find the grimm again if given the chance, but to kill the animal would bring undue attention to the forest.

Despite the flaring of the dog's aura the grimm was completely unfazed. It was hardly affecting the grimm with its one-beast riot and without much recourse other than to simply carry the dog around – which was a terrible idea – the wolf wound the pet back in its grip before tossing it into the spires of the tallest building. There was muffled barking noises before a soft thud echoed. The form of the dog could be seen on that platform, jumping up and down but reluctant to try and leap from that height.

Free of the pest, but now with people possibly coming to investigate, the beowolf melted into the trees and continued its way to the sounds of clashing metal.

* * *

Though some of the more dangerous operations were recalled from the field in the wake of the train accident the population of beacon was still quite spread out. A few had returned to the campus 'just in case', and team RWBY was currently waiting to see what would come of the incident in the merchant quarter. Ozpin hadn't called for them yet and nobody was really watching them since they were in need of their rest. At least that's what they were hoping.

Blake was reading and Weiss was making a phone call about replenishing her dust supplies. Yang was still sleeping for some reason, and though Ruby was pretty sure she had gone to bed in her pyjamas she was fully clothed now. And sleeping. Weird.

"Thanks for the book." Ruby said after she finally moved from her position near the bathroom door. She had been a bit preoccupied since the last night and was most _definitely_ tired after staying up for who knows how long after everyone else was asleep. "I have it. Somewhere. I'll find it later, I'm going to look for Oobleck."

Weiss nodded absentmindedly, not realizing she wasn't being addressed, but Blake tilted her head. "What did you need again? I was too tired last night. I think I dreamed about throwing some snow at you which tells you how exhausted I was."

"It's… Uh…" Ruby shrugged. "I wanted to read up on what we covered before the other schools arrived. Weird dream…" _If she knows what book then she'll remember right?_ "Don't know where that came from. It was cold last night?" Ruby's possible explanation was so high pitched she didn't seem sure of it herself.

Blake narrowed her eyes before shrugging.

"Eh… heh…" Ruby shuffled on the spot before pulling her normal outfit over her underclothes and exiting the room. "Tell Yang I'll be back in a bit if she asks!" She called over her shoulder though at that point she was already down the hall and out of hearing range.

Oobleck's office was on the opposite side of campus from the dormitories and it was a bit of a walk. She had to pass by the main square of the campus which was doubling as a sort of form examination for some of the senior years before they went on an extended mission. There were two teams there with one instructor and each of them would perform shadowboxing before testing their skills on the huntress presiding. It was a dangerous sport when there was no aura monitoring but for the upper years they were supposed to determine their safety on the fly: When to back down and when to press the fight.

She paused for a moment to see that team CFVY were among those being tested. Coco was trying to compete with the huntress in hand to hand but the woman was deflecting the blows with relative ease, and despite Coco's superior strength she kept throwing herself off balance until eventually she had to submit. Ruby didn't know why until the drawn blade of the huntress could be seen being lightly pressed against Coco's neck.

"They're allowed to do that…?" Ruby wondered, though her fears were assuaged when the huntress bent the blade against her own neck. It was a fake though the huntress during the spar treated it like it was real. It looked crazy to onlookers, or maybe it was just Ruby, to see a teacher do something like that.

The rest of the trip to the faculty offices was only complicated by having to grab Zwei out of the air as he leapt down from the central tower. She had no idea how he got up there but was quick to hide him under her cape where the corgi hid, growling at nothing in particular.

She was muttering empty threats of abandonment when she finally was able to knock on Oobleck's door. It flew open like on an automatic latch and the sound of ruffled papers could be heard through the doorway.

Ruby entered to see Oobleck leafing through some papers at lightning speed, though he paused when she was fully through the threshold. "Ruby,-you're-up-early-for-someone-who-has-recently-fought off-a horde-of-grimm-what-brings-you-to-my-office?" He said in his normal speedy way. He turned on the spot and grabbed a cup, filled it with water and was beside her in a flash to hand the water off. "Drink up, aura-usage-is-taxing-so-keep-hydrated, hydrated!"

"Thanks." The huntress-in-training said as she took a sip. "I was going to ask about-"

"Old Grimm?" He asked, brow arched and expectant.

"Uh. Yeah?" A brow raised and she took another sip. "How-"

"Simple deduction. Work on it and it will serve you well." He cut her off again. "We're alive and nobody was gravely injured, you know that, I know that, I hope I know that, so it's not about the mission since we solved the problem. You know why you want to be a huntsman so there's no point in asking me why I didn't ask you because you know why I wouldn't ask you even if you don't know why you know why I wouldn't ask you."

The long string of words with a lot of didn'ts and wouldn'ts left Ruby a bit confused though she somewhat caught onto what he was saying. Maybe.

"And, as the one thing we spoke at length about was grimm and age and I do believe you were impressed by it, it is reasonable to assume that you might approach me later about something regarding grimm be it their age or their intelligence and I just need to a-"

"Sir, how smart are grimm?" She got right to the point since Oobleck seemed more than willing to not get to it on his own.

"Smart? Smart is a sticky term." Oobleck slowed down in a moment and he turned on his heel to grab a book from a shelf behind him. "Smart is either how well you perform maths or combine colors for an aesthetically pleasing tapestry. One can find intellect in animals and humans alike and sometimes the former outperform the latter in tests one would call those of aptitude. So what do you mean smart? Strong smart swift smart smart smart?"

"Like using tools?" She hazarded.

"Like a monkey with a rock for a brain." Oobleck stated simply. "Or no rock just a small pocket of air."

He continued after flipping through some of the pages of the book which Ruby recognized as being similar to the one Blake had given her to read. She was about to say something but Oobleck cut her off again.

"Grimm like many malevolent forces in the world strive only for the _malcontentisme_ of humanity attacking both the creations of man and man itself, striving only for the strength and opportunities which would allow them to destroy human habitats." He finished the quotation and paraphrased all which followed. "Give a beowolf the key to its own cage and it would sooner try to gouge your eyes out with it then spoon feed it to a cat than try and free itself."

"So a beowolf couldn't use a weapon?" Ruby asked.

"No." Was the first short answer Oobleck had given.

"Even an old one?"

"How old is old for the species?"

"Say…" Ruby looked up to the ceiling at tried to remember what was written in the text. "Five hundred years?"

Oobleck laughed. It was a hearty one, one that had him shudder on the spot in at a hazy speed. "Half a millennium?" He asked with a hearty laugh in his tone. When he noticed that Ruby was not, in fact, kidding and was, in fact, serious he paused his laughing. "Hypothetically speaking?" He asked with a small amount of concern in his voice.

"Of course."

Oobleck smiled again. "A beowolf of that age would be reclusive and never approach the city." The doctor said with a measure of confidence. "As you saw with the goliaths old grimm would stay far away from the limits of the kingdoms in near seclusion. At that age they have lost battles with man for so long that they have survived each encounter to lick the proverbial wounds, growing smarter and smarter but also less and less likely to attack a human settlement. At their core they would still will the death of humanity, but without the agency to do so they would be too far from humanity to exercise whatever intelligence they may have."

_But one was in the city yesterday._ Ruby thought as she ground the toe of her right shoe into the floor.

"So they couldn't operate a weapon?" She asked, just to be clear. _Was that a fluke?_

"They couldn't, there would be no weapons for them to experiment with without getting close to humans. And for a beowolf of that age attacking humans would contain within the action a sense of paranoia at their own death, meaning that through the cyclical stress they would get no stronger and never exercise their intellect. They would be functionally as intelligent as any average grimm, which isn't."

She wanted to press the professor but if she did she would have to explain what she saw. And what if it was just a weird grimm? She hadn't seen albino grimm before but if a taijitu had a white body a beowolf could too, and if it was just some confused wolf then there was no reason to cause alarm.

But if there was cause to raise alarm… _I should ask Yang about what she thinks._

"Thanks profe-"

" _Doctor._ "

"Doctor." Ruby corrected as she left the room. She sighed to herself and pursed her lips as she tried to think of what else she could to find out more about the grim. It was smart, and that was a bit weird and also slightly scary. If it could use a weapon could it pilot a ship? Probably not, two different things. She thought there was a lot of nuance to crescent rose but it wasn't the same as piloting a ship.

_Fooocuuuuus._ She mentally chastised herself as she gently knocked herself in the side of the head with her knuckles. As she exited the staff room she felt Zwei start to grumble again and nuzzle her in the back from under her cape making her giggle for a few seconds before she swatted her cape a couple of times to get him to calm down.

When she looked up she was looking at the square where the upper years were practicing again. She was watching Yatsuhashi attempt to pin the huntress when another nip at her back made her walk over to the woods to try and deal with the dog. It was being a nuisance, and while usually it was mischievous right now it was being a bit of a pain.

The second she was on the other side of a couple of trees the dog jumped down from the cloak and dashed towards a cluster of trees not far from the training second years. She gave chase, yelling under her breath for Zwei to come back as she used her semblance to try and grab the dog before it leapt into one of the trees it had stopped at.

As she picked it up the dog continued to squirm and managed to evade her grip, though as the animal lacked any hands though it managed to get all four paws on the tree it simply slid back down to the ground.

"Stop that Zwei!" Ruby commanded a second time, picking him up and holding him tight to her side. She looked up for whatever he was so obsessed with and found herself for the second time in two days looking at the mask of the armored beowolf. She froze for a moment mouth slightly open as if she were going to say something jokingly…

* * *

The beast was more irritated now with the persistence of the dog than the appearance of the red one. The dog should have given up and turned-tail once it had been thrown onto the tower, though this one seemed more than happy to hound the Grimm down. So it should be killed, or, the next time it saw the dog it would toss it down one of the cliffs and see if it took longer for it to fetch itself.

Either way, the dog was going to become more a problem alive than if its carcass were found in the doorstop of one of the buildings.

The grimm paid cursory attention to the human since right now she was armed with the contraption and those humans not too far away would come running if a fight were to start. Relocating seemed like the best option but any option was contingent on how the human acted. She could be pinned again, the weapon stolen to leave her without recourse but to escape but that still left the problem of a shepherd-turned-sheep bringing more to the forest. A situation the grimm would want to avoid at all costs.

So the grimm stared at the girl for a moment to see what she would do. It was impressed by the ability of the child to resist the call of fear, more a sort of hesitance. If she could fight without showing her anger, her aggression then she could surprise it. If she had no control than evasion of the weapon's draw could work.

The question is whether or not the child could be inspired with fear without rousing her comrades.

A question which would have to be explored but at that moment the grimm saw a faunus from the group it has been observing approach the forest, eyes casting about for what the wolf assumed to be the red one. A weak child, perhaps, a sheep with sharp teeth, from what it saw of the fight. Regardless, another sheep, more to bleet when bitten.

The grimm grumbled, annoyed, as it leapt down from the tree silently when the red one was dealing with her pet again, and once it hit the ground it sprinted low through the trees. It could hear the call of the red one before the faint sound of the faunus reached its ears. It was already far enough away that there was only silence, and after leaping into a grove of trees and listening for a moment it was certain that the girl had either never started the chase or given up on it.

No matter, it had seen all it really needed to from that group. The reliance on weapons was heavy, only a few of them seemed to have discipline in their unarmed strikes and of them only a few had weapons which complimented the style well.

So disarming was the route to eliminating man. Their technology was their keystone… Or so it appeared.


	4. Taking Chances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team RWBY decides to set out after the Beowolf, meanwhile the Grimm finds out it isn't as sneaky as it thought.

**Beowolf:**

The beowolf didn't foray out of the woods until later that afternoon when the noise in the area had mostly died down. There was no fear in the air or apprehension so either the red one had decided to resist telling the other humans of a grimm in the area or whomever had been sent had no fear in their hearts.

Scent though had no adequate mask, and after deciding that there was no imminent threat the wolf decided it was time for more investigation of the humans. Pushing its luck where there were so many shepherds was folly, so scaling one of the cliffs to enter the city proper again have to be the complimentary recourse. The humans would be grazing but the grimm was unsure how long it would be staying in the area. How much needed to be comprehended? How much _could_ it understand without being able to extract information from the very minds of humans?

Uncertainty. It plagued the beast at times and to counter this it made up its mind. The city below would be searched for any outstanding technology. Metallic boxes could be pried open, light fixtures cracked, light-creatures examined… Collecting some of the components would not be too difficult though it would require multiple trips from the city to the cliff to move all the pieces. The engineer from the night before had several mechanical parts for one device, the grimm would need many, many more to try and effect its own craft. With no prior knowledge it would be an exercise in trial and error.

There was time for that though.

Getting off the cliff was a trial as the device which had elevated the grimm before was in use by humans returning to the buildings. There was a moment of pause where the door remained open, and while some humans did take the lift down it was likely that humans waited at the bottom. It was likely a grimm appearing leaving or arriving would illicit the same responses.

So the cliff was the only choice. Flying machines complicated things, along with how the trees spaced out the closer the wolf got to the edge of the grounds. As it skirted the grassy opening looking for the best place to approach the ledge it noticed a broad path which lead from the cliff down to the northern end of the city. Few were using it as it was a long hill, but most were traveling down rather than up, and there seemed to be no settlement to the outside edge of the path.

Between scaling the cliff and taking the longer path the safer choice was obvious, and the grimm followed after a group of four that were walking down In loose pairs. A brown and yellow pair and a pink and green one, all of various statures and a dissonance in their gait. Were they weak? Or young?

It was the best way to spend time, so the wolf did as it had been for a while now; remained silent while observing the actions of man.

**Blake:**

Blake Belladonna was shocked. She honestly was, and while she was sometimes unsettled by things this was the first time in a while she was honestly completely surprised by something and not horrified.

Though this was a bit of a horror in and of itself.

"Ruby, why are my books strewn across…" Blake asked as she stepped back into her room to see her regularly ordered books neatly spread about the room in a lopsided circle. In the middle was Ruby, flipping through the pages of one of the books. She had obviously been through most of them already since the flatter side of the circle had bookmarks in them. "Catching up on studies?"

Ruby didn't respond at first, staring at one of the books intently before sighing and closing the text.

"There's a grimm on campus." Ruby said, though she sounded more frustrated than worried. She had an annoyed look on her face which faded quickly when she looked at Blake. "I want to catch it."

The faunus was fairly certain she had heard the leader of team RWBY wrong. So certain in fact that one of her ears moved slightly as if it would catch the echo of the words and somehow rearrange the sounds into something, anything, which didn't sound like…

"You want to catch a _grimm_?"

That.

Weiss, who had been reading her magazine in silence tossed it down before climbing out of her bunk. When she was standing on the floor her mouth was parted like a scandal had occurred before her very eyes. Or was about to at least.

"Ruby, where did you find a grimm on campus? And why didn't you report it to the faculty?" Weiss managed to reel back the emphatic tone and Blake internally congratulated the Schnee for showing some restraint. "There shouldn't be _any_ grimm on campus. And why do you want to capture it?"

"Ah… Well…" Ruby said, her tone rising and showing her own uncertainty. "In order… Outside the main square in the thick trees which kinda divide the area where CVFL was practicing with the Huntress and one of the back paths. I don't know how it got on campus but it knows how to move through the trees well… But that's a beowolf I guess… and it's acting weird."

"Uh, Ruby, that's not just on campus, that's _in_ the campus." Blake pointed out as she stepped towards the younger woman. "If there's a grimm here that's one thing, but if they found a way to scale the cliffs they could attack Vale at any time."

"See… Maybe?" Ruby said, or asked rather. She didn't seem certain one way or another despite the fact Blake was fairly certain that any grimm that were hanging around Beacon wouldn't have too hard a time making their way into Vale proper. Then she realized something.

"Wait, if it was a beowolf?" Weiss asked, incredulous, beating Blake to the punch as it were. "Why didn't you just kill it then?"

"It's a weird wolf!" Ruby finally exclaimed, surprising Blake and Weiss. "It's old! Probably, like, four hundred years old or something and it didn't attack anyone. It was just kind of watching people and when I saw it yesterday it was just curious…" Ruby ran out of steam when she realized her little interference game was going to come to light. _Should have just told them last night._

"Wait, there was a wolf that escaped the tunnels into the city!?" Blake was surprised that Ruby had a bad idea, but to let a grimm escape unhindered into the wild? Ruby might be a bit brash at times but they were mostly past that right? She wouldn't let people get endangered like that.

"I would have thought it was dead since the Atlesian mechs appeared!" Ruby countered. "I thought it was weird, not that it would come to Beacon!"

"Let's… Just find it alright?" Blake finally said after a long pause. "We're probably already in trouble for the train incident. We don't want you getting in any more trouble… Even if you maybe should."

Weiss sighed but nodded. "Blake's right but how do we find it?"

As she said that Blake could see Zwei speed out from under one of the bunks and start barking, bouncing up and down on its hind legs while kicking out with its front paws. It 'punched' at each of the three girls present before falling onto all fours and giving a convincing yip. The faunus wasn't sure what the dog was certain of though as its pantomiming left much to be desired.

"Zwei can sniff out the grimm." Ruby said, smiling and picking up the dog which barked cheerfully. "He led me to the wolf when I was walking back from Oobleck's office. He tried to climb a tree and when I checked to see what he was looking for there was the beowolf."

"Is there anything this dog can't do…?" Weiss asked aloud. The dog seemed to bark a 'no'.

**Beowolf:**

It was proving less than useful to have determined the abode of the engineer.

An hour was all it took for the Grimm to retrace its steps to the residential quarter, and from there to the general area of where the engineer had lived was only a short distance. The problem was that even though the Grimm knew – generally – where the human lived it did not know where he was currently. If it was out interacting with the machines as it had been doing before then there was a wide swath of land where he could be working.

It would take a while to sniff him out and with the amount of time spent in the dust-rich air around the clifftop smelling _anything_ was proving difficult. So there would need to be another human to follow and observe. There were many of the cattle wandering about in the evening light but to follow a human on a mundane task would be to waste time but the difference between a human with purpose and one without was unclear.

Again the wolf found itself watching and waiting. Not the best way to spend time but better than hunting aimlessly. To keep out of view it made use of the roofs which were unfortunately the only places free of searching eyes. Steep shingles made for treacherous footing but the more risky component was the fact that the heavy beowolf was noisy upon leaping and landing. Detection was highly likely already with a single mistake, creating more opportunities for those mistakes was rather low priority.

Patterns in the humans began to form the more the grimm watched, just as before. It was currently situated over the eaves of a restaurant which had a constant stream of humans coming and going. Emotions were running below the beast, but while there was a ping of anger or betrayal there were few that held the emotions close to them for long enough for it to be considered a 'temptation'.

The patterns of aggression were interesting. Once one of the humans was annoyed it would be either mostly dispelled or exacerbated, rarely remain constant. If a human rushed to the entrance a corresponding dose of annoyance would diminish more often than not. If someone laced with anger entered than either others would become angry or that individual would diminish in their own emotions.

It was filtered through temptations, but the grimm could tell that humans relied on each other for emotional sorting. A human in an emotional state affected others, a hysteric person was either calmed or others fell to hysterics, never did any emotions remain unchanged.

The more intense the emotion the more likely it would catch with others though. This was more important to the Grimm than any other piece of information that could have been gained, that a human instilled with delirious fear was an agent of fear spreading the 'temptation'.

If it understood the words of man it could have determined the nature of the emotions but without understanding it was left to guess. The wolf knew the humans treasured their lives and the existence of their constructs. Destroy a bridge and anger takes hold, destroy a life and grief does.

But what else? A Grimm only knew those two things, the destruction of man and its mechanisms. Ignoring the emotions around it the beowolf paused and tried to listen through the walls in vain. What was it that drove these humans to their emotions? What unsettled them but death and destruction? They were safe, _thought_ they were safe, what affected them?

With a growl the bestial mind found no answer.

Then a familiar sound echoed off the walls of the surrounding buildings. A laugh like a howl that it had heard earlier. One of the women, the pink one, had made the same noise while the wolf had been shadowing the twin pairs down the path leading from the cliff. It was loud, boisterous, and effected immediate slight annoyance from three which dimmed immediately.

The grimm edged closer to the lip of the eaves and when looking down saw, as it had expected, the group of four. The one was laughing for whatever reason while the yellow was sighing, though his ally on the other side in brown appeared to be consoling him.

The humans looked to have completed whatever task they had set out to do. Objects were being carried of different shapes and sizes and the yellow one was showing some signs of fatigue. The pink individual was still highly energized, however, and made a few swinging motions with her hands together before making a near full spin and bringing her hands forward like swinging a club. Bringing a hand to her eyes she turned her head in a dramatic arc like watching a falcon weave through leaves before…

The wolf ducked down when it realized the path of the woman's gaze would meet his own in mere moments. It didn't need to go prone but it did quietly take a few steps back to be sure. A sudden cracking sound was heard along with some sort of explosion and suddenly the pink woman had soared into view just over the lip of the roof. She was standing on the edge of some great hammer like it was a step of a sort, and had her eyes shaded against the sunlight with a flat hand resting against her forehead.

"Here puppy puppy puppy…" She called out, looking side to side until she seemed to notice the grimm. Her expression widened and she was thrown for a moment causing her to lose her balance and fall backwards out of the air.

The equally surprised wolf wasted little time in retreating, and with a great leap it tossed itself from one roof to another before sliding to a halt. The steep eaves were tiled, and a few of the ceramic plates fell to the ground in a clatter before settling. The pink woman appeared again, this time soaring across the building and spinning in place with a determined look in her eye. The grimm shifted itself as close to the roof as possible without sliding and watched carefully. It had chosen the darker side of the roof because though the whiteness of its armor would stand out somewhat at least it wouldn't glow in the evening light.

The pink woman completed her arc, but by the time she was soaring back a second time the wolf made certain of its escape and leapt three buildings away to hid in the shadows of a bakery's tall chimneys. Two more of the group of four ascended to the roofs to search but after fifteen minutes they returned to the streets.

To be sure the wolf waited another half hour before moving again. It was unsure of where to go now, as depending on what those four did it would either need to escape to the cliff now and lose the chance to collect some of the technology of man or escape to the forests beyond for its own safety. Would the pink one think it was her imagination? Possibly, but unlikely since other members of her group had come to search.

With no other recourse, and since the sirens that blared when the grimm had first arrived in the city were not playing yet, the wolf decided it would take the risk of vandalizing some of the human technology to see what could be learned.

It was taking chances, but those were all it had for now with no brethren to rely on. Ironic, that the wolf would be hunted among a flock of sheep.


	5. Chapter 5

It was risky.

Incredibly risky.

But it was working.

The white wolf had given up on randomly searching for insight and had decided that now was as good a time as any to break off some of the light fixtures which stood on the street corners. It seemed like it would be a risk whether it was day or not, since the loss of light would be more easily seen during the night while the grimm itself was easier to see during the day. It was a bit of an estimation act, but the wolf eventually decided that white light shining on its carapace during the night would be just as stark as daylight.

So now, the large beowolf was teetering on the top of a light post, trying to cut with a long claw through the neck of the structure to remove the mechanism within, as much of it as possible. The canine legs both helped and were a burden since with one hand it was easier to apply appropriate force to keep itself in place. Being unable to keep itself completely still, was making the incision a bit difficult.

After a few seconds of sawing the beowolf pulled up on the housing unit until it resisted movement with a somewhat sinewy bounce. Tethered. It must have been connected to the base in some way the grimm decided and after cutting another ring of metal away found the cable which connected to the mechanism. Another tug and it was clear the length was not going to give easily.

With a grunt the beowolf pulled the cord from the ground, a sound like shattering stone, or boiling water, something indescribable rang loud for a moment as the light went dark and the deserted corner dimmed slightly. The light was off and the power disconnected. The grimm had something which it could inspect for hours, and while it was uncertain if this would be a pointless endeavour the materials were already in its claws.

The humans would be returning to their abodes soon enough so there would be no one to observe and it was unlikely that the wolf would be so lucky as to find the engineer again. So the machine would suffice. Or be a waste of time. With no need to sleep the nighttime hours would probably be wasted anyways…

But would it need more pieces?

The grimm walked in the graying light of the street as it questioned that, but didn't see how. If the device worked as a unit, why should it need more pieces?

If the grimm accidentally damaged something inside the light fixture then it would need more lights, but to move quietly and effectively the beowolf needed both hands and as-is was only using one. Humans used skins to carry things but…

These thoughts in images and base ideas continued to cross the grimm's mind, making free use on the basic developed intelligence it had fostered over the uncounted decades. But for all that time, the beowolf was still in grimm terms hardly the smartest of them, and its mental capacity being fully overtaken by the complexities of how a light works made it rather oblivious to the goings-on around it. Team RWBY and JNPR were a bit more on point.

Ruby was happy that Zwei had resisted the primal call to yip at the beowolf as it lumbered down the street. It was larger than the average of a member of the species and it moved far too quietly for its size. They had seen the grimm daintily pry the light from the post and all of them were impressed in a detached 'that's cool but who did it isn't' way. Pyrrha had to throw a hand over Jaune's mouth to keep him from asking the question on everyone's mind which was 'why'.

"So that's an ancient grimm…" Blake said under her breath to herself. She read over the parts that Ruby had the night before and was surprised that a specimen existed for beowolves, a notoriously quick-to-attack species with little apparent difference between individuals. This beowolf, unlike any she had seen before, stood at a relatively reserved eight feet. It was odd because most beowolves were either six feet or twelve standing. This one had evolved to be smaller. Why not just larger? Did it really learn that a smaller grimm had a better chance of hiding in Vale? The thought was unsettling.

"What's the white stuff all over it?" Jaune asked.

"An exoskeleton, like armor, it's like the mask that covers parts of all grimm but much stronger." Blake replied.

"Ah. Great. A super wolf." Jaune said sarcastically as he stared up to the first stars appearing in the dusk.

"It's definitely the same one I saw over Paggy's." Nora said, quietly but most definitely with her same energy, manghild in her hands like she was going to catch a bug in a net. A rather large bug in a huge net. "It was right in the middle of town but when I saw it it must have scurried off somewhere because it was scared!"

"Alright, so what are we going to do?" Asked Ruby, which was met with a protracted sigh from Weiss.

"Oh fearless leader, finder of the beast, you should know you let it loose yesterday." The heiress said rolling her eyes.

"Ah, right. I think we can capture it." Ruby said, a rising intonation showing she wasn't certain about that plan.

"Grimm die in captivity if held for too long. They either kill their keepers and escape, or they die. We should probably just deal with it now. We don't know what it's doing and if it's as dangerous as you all say…" Pyrrha trailed off.

"I say we deal with it now." Ren said after a short moment of silence passed.

"Can't we just ask Ms Goodwitch to deal with it?" Jaune complained quietly. He was ignored.

"If we're going to catch him we're going to need to knock it out…" Yang's brows creased. "Or do they just die..?"

"Not he, it, grimm are things." Weiss corrected, a small trace of bitterness in her voice.

"Guys, it's gone." Ruby interjected since it seemed like everyone had tossed in their two cents now. "And so is Zwei-oh-my-god-so-is-Zwei!"

Realizing that the pooch must have noticed that its people weren't doing anything and chased the grimm on its own Ruby launched herself around a corner to see if Zwei was anywhere to be seen. At first glance neither were even still on the street. Second glance too.

"Ruby, wait!" Yang called before Ruby could sprint down the street. She knew that while Ruby usually didn't use her semblance when she was stressed it was true that if the younger sister did the rest of them would be searching for both of them. "Calm down, Zwei is smart. Let's head down the road and see if we find anything first before we freak out."

"But I'm freaking out now." Ruby retorted but relaxed a bit, looking less like she was about to zip away without notice. "The grimm didn't do anything last time but what if it does now? Zwei keeps finding it and-"

Weiss stepped forward and placed her hands on Ruby's shoulders. "Calm. Down. We'll find your mutt and we'll find the grimm. Just calm down before you start babbling."

Ruby shut her mouth and stopped talking for a moment, though it was obvious she had more things to say. Yang nodded to Weiss and Ruby realizing that there was no point in talking about blame let out a long breath.

"So, everyone has their phones, right?" Yang asked, taking charge for the moment. All nodded. "The grimm was heading east so it might be heading back to the academy, so it has to cross the river at one of the bridges to get to the cliff face. Ren and Nora hit the central bridge, Jaune and Pyrrha check the eastern bridge. If you run you should get there ahead of it. Blake and I will check the northern edge while Weiss and Ruby keep going along this road. We see it, we call the others to let them know. Alright?"

All present nodded and team JNPR split off to check the bridges. Team RWBY also did, and the net was being sprung to catch the grimm.

Said grimm was completely unaware of the fact that it had been seen, let alone was being trapped. It had been so preoccupied that only when it realized there was an annoying vibration on its elbow did it actually clue back into its surroundings.

The same accursed dog from before was back, this time biting onto the elbow arm of the wolf and trying to shake its head like a terrier. With nothing to plant itself on though, the black and white thing was only succeeding in wiggling its plump body side to side. It would have been cute for a human to see, maybe horrifying, but the grimm was starting to become annoying. Tossing the mutt had no effect, traveling far from the cliff did not seem to deter it, and the human which owned it did not appear to keep it on a tight leash.

It had no quarrel with beasts but a beast which refused to allow the grimm peace was not going to be spared. But did it have a choice? Animals slain which belonged to man created anguish, then hatred, then the aggression. A sheep would call shepherds, a shepherd would hunt the grimm. Or in this case the shepherd would hunt the grimm directly for culling a member of its personal flock.

The wolf had some amount of certainty in how to combat the speed of the red one, but the red one had allies in black, yellow and white. To attack one would be to attack them all, and to combat all three of them, especially the black and white, was a battle the beowolf didn't seem likely to win.

So it was now stuck with the dog. To let the dog return to the human would be to let the red one know where it was. No conflict had arisen last time but the grimm now had precious materials that were definitely worth more than a sparring match with a human which the wolf could not decisively end for fear of retaliation.

So, it picked the dog up in its jaws. It still needed one hand, so it reached down with one paw and picked the dog up. It began to yip and kick, then bark, and that would bring attention to the pair. Annoyed, the wolf opened its maw and put the dog up to its neck inside its mouth and held it there, closing its jaw around the neck as gently as possible.

Zwei for his part was going insane. This was literally the last thing many small dogs saw when fighting grimm and right now the dog was literally staring down the gullet of death. It kicked and groaned and gasped at whatever thin air made its way past the teeth of the wolf. It tried activating its aura but that only got a nip around its entire neck as warning, and the dog went limp, wining.

It was difficult for the grimm to move with a mouth filled with corgi but it was still better than trying to use only its hind legs to walk all the way to the top of the cliff. It had been lucky in getting to the buildings using the lift before, but the amount of people who used it seemed to indicate that the occasion had been just that, incredibly lucky. So up the hill it was, and on two feet that would be treacherous for a beowolf trying to be stealthy as-is.

Once it reached the bottom of the hill it peered up to the first plateau to see if anyone was coming before making a dash for the grove of trees that made a small garden of sorts. It was the first bit of cover since the trail widened out at the bottom, thinning the trees from ten thick to none over the course of a few dozen meters. The most dangerous moments were those from the forest to the garden and the garden to the darker alleyways.

The grimm waited a couple minutes to see if it could hear any humans approaching from the road that ran perpendicular to the alleyway. During those seconds it saw twice the same pink woman from before soaring high into the air with the same pose she had earlier in the day. It was far from where the wolf had first run into her before and near the river it had crossed the day prior. Near where the engineer had been working, maybe. Just before it moved again the girl was in the air again, this time much closer and at about where the bridge it had used before was.

This was slightly concerning, but it decided that it was possible humans with such skills simply used the techniques for transportation. Possibly. Instinct was gnawing at the back of its mind telling it to get the hell out right now.

Right as the grimm complied with that order and dashed from the cover of the trees the voice of one of the four colors echoed off of the streets.

"Zwei!"

Immediately the empty red eyes focused on the now-vigorously wriggling rump of the dog in its mouth. That was the name of the dog. This dog. The red one had said it before. So the yellow one owned this particular dog as well? Now it really couldn't just bite down on the hairy thing because it might antagonize all of the four immediately. And they were close, the shout was an echo but a strong one.

The usually calm (for a grimm) wolf became infuriated with the dog, now almost more for the fact it could not simply eat it. To drop it now would be to let it start yapping, then how long would it take for its shepherds to arrive? Was the wolf fast enough?

It was time to find out.


	6. Tinkering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls recover Zwei while the Beowolf tries to figure out a human contraption.

A hairy mass rolled down the street towards Weiss, the black and white pattern blurring a bit at the speed the thing was traveling along the pavement. It rolled to a stop, flopped over to the side, and yipped a sickly yip.

The heiress' brows creased for a moment before crouching down. "Zwei…?" She asked, simultaneously uncertain and horrified.

The dog grumbled its affirmation before pulling itself to its feel and shaking itself like it had just swam across a swimming pool, sending the liquid which had soaked into the fur of its upper body every which way. Weiss barely had enough time to jump away as some of it landed right on where she had been standing before.

"Ok that's just gross." She sighed before approaching the dog again, careful to make sure that he didn't decide he needed to shake a second time. The dog was wet, well, kind of wet since only its face seemed to be moist, almost like it had fallen face-first into a puddle. She picked him up, careful to avoid the wet spots and looked him in the face. "Where did you get off to?"

Still tired, and a little bit motion sick, Zwei just kinda nodded his head before yawning.

"Poor puppy…" Weiss said, smiling before the corgi disappeared from her hands into Ruby's.

The Schnee girl watched the team leader jump up and down, happy to see that the dog was alright, and decided she wouldn't complain about the dog being snatched away. Instead she grabbed her communicator and sent a text to everyone who was on the search.

_Found Zwei, was on the road that connects to the path down the north side of the city. No grimm, just a wet dog._

_W. Schnee_

She kept the device in-hand to check messages when someone called back, and smiled to herself as Ruby tried to play with the exhausted animal. The dog was tired, probably from running around the city for the past while, but was recovering nicely. It was odd, though, that Zwei had a lot more black around his face than normal… And was that smoke?!

Ruby screamed and picked Zwei up, Weiss rushing after as the leader tried to remember the closest body of water. She didn't question why it looked like the dog was burning, or why the animal seemed surprisingly calm, or why there was suddenly a case of spontaneous fire-less combustion. As they stressed, and just about the same time Ruby got her wits together enough to activate her semblance the black patches on the animal's face lifted off like leaves being blown off a tree. They rose, then disappeared.

"What is going ooooon?!" Ruby shouted, now completely unsure of what was happening. It was like smoke, like burning, but the dog was OK? Maybe it wasn't on fire? Just to be sure she started to wave the dog back and forth at a moderate speed to try and blow away any fire, just in case.

"What are you guys doing?" Blake asked, dashing to meet up with the pair from behind. She had heard the yelling and shouting from where they were just a few blocks away. "What's wrong with the dog?"

"We don't know!" Ruby said, calming as the dog stopped doing… whatever it was doing. "It just started burning and then black stuff started flying off it."

"What, like a grim?" Blake said, a brow raised as Yang caught up.

"Zwei isn't a grimm." Ruby said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, what if it was something from a grimm on it?" Weiss asked. "He was wet when I found him. He was rolling down the street like a ball and covered in some clear stuff… Hey, he's dry now."

"Like saliva?" Yang asked, shrugging her shoulders, and Weiss immediately narrowed her eyes.

"Are you telling me that not only did the grimm try to _eat_ Zwei, it spat it so hard it rolled down the hill?" Her voice got louder and louder as she spoke. "And then when the dog started shaking it almost got grimm spit on me?" She turned to the dog as if to ridicule it but stopped when she came to the conclusion that the dog had probably been through enough.

"Whoa…" Yang said, raising her hands in defense. "I'm not saying that, I'm guessing that it could be that. Who knows what the beowolf did? It just looks like it licked Zwei or something."

"Or attempted to eat it." Weiss countered.

"Regardless, Zwei found the grimm again." Blake said growing weary of the argument. "So we know we can find it as long as we follow Zwei, but we're lucky Zwei isn't dead yet. Grimm don't attack animals deliberately but this one might hurt the dog if it thinks we're being led to it."

"So… What now?" Yang asked, cracking her knuckles before crossing her arms.

The four looked at each other, waiting for one of them to have a brilliant idea.

"Well, do we want to search all the wooded areas from here to the Beacon?" Yang said, somewhat sarcastically. All present shook their heads. "Then I guess we're packing it in." That choice was met with similar reluctance.

"Yang and I can search." Blake offered. "I can see better in the dark than anyone and the grimm ran away from her last time, according to Ruby. If we find where it is hiding out then we can attack sometime tomorrow when it's light out. If it runs into us we can try pushing it down the cliff, forcing it out of Vale again."

Yet more displeasure with the options but Weiss and Yang nodded their heads, affirming their votes.

"Alright, I'll send word to JNPR what we have planned. Pyrrha might want to come, she's the best fighter of all of us." Weiss stepped away from the rest of them to make the call.

"But…" Ruby was obviously uncomfortable with the thought of staying back while others fought. She looked down at the dog in her arms though and sighed. "Alright. I'll look after Zwei for you guys. If I think you're in danger I'm going to be stumbling through the forest in the moonlight, so you better be back quick."

Erstwhile, the hunted was starting to move a large stone from the edge of the cliff into the trees. It had only one of these machines to tinker with that night, and while it may have risked working on the ground if it had three or four units, right then it only had one. Losing pieces could mean the thing didn't work, and the engineer had many pieces he was working with.

So it had found a relatively flat rock and was now dragging it into a small copse of trees where the foliage was much denser than normal. The sound of branches breaking and earth being gouged was a cacophony to the grimm but it was a necessary annoyance. Every few moments it would stop to listen since while the machines that patrolled were difficult to sense in other ways they still did make noise.

Three or four times the beowolf had to lay low while the robots wandered past, eyeless heads gazing into the darkness of the forest. It was unsettling being unable to see the eyes of an enemy, where they were focused and what they were thinking. The machines had none of that, and it made something like dragging a four hundred pound rock quietly through bushes a rather scary task.

Once the stone was in place the grimm shifted it until it was fairly flat and draw a claw over the face of it. A thin scrape was etched but not too quietly. Any cups to be drilled into the stone would need to wait.

Surface set, it retreated from the cluster of plants to grab the machine which it had hidden between a few rocks just a short distance away. It was slightly concerned about the location and had wanted to make sure it wouldn't be heavily investigated, and to keep the light safe in case of possible detection it kept it hidden so the grimm could make an effective getaway.

Now the problem was investment. If so much stuff was kept here then if it was found all was lost, so keeping the rock and the materials in different places seemed ideal. But more places to find things, the more likely a shepherd or sheep would find something suspicious. It was an awkward balancing act, and the beowolf was tentatively deciding on keeping everything here and then running interference to prevent anyone from finding the cache of materials.

More risks. It was starting to find them more and more acceptable, probably since simply being in the general vicinity of the city was dangerous, let alone where the shepherds resided. To reduce the risks would be to distance itself from the benefit of knowledge which its kind sorely lacked. So it would stay right where it was.

But the dog… Next time it would have to die. Too much in one place for the dog to alert the shepherds of everything that had been collected. A warning had been made, but the dog had ignored all others. Death was the prize for that tenacity.

It then set to work pulling apart the light. The cord was still attached to the base, frayed at the end but mostly intact but inert. The housing which contained the dust was untouched and a seam in the metal ran horizontal across it like a little scar. The grimm began there.

Taking the end of one of its claws it pierced the metal along that seam and carefully rotated the whole. It was difficult work for a beowolf who's hands were rather large and not designed for the deft work of construction. The cut was shaky and jagged at times, but deep enough that with a small tug the casing separated into two.

The top had nothing within it but some clear material so it was set aside on the top of the rock. As it was set down a light cracking noise was heard like stepping on snow and the beast immediately lifted it back up to see that the clear material on the inside had broken into fine pieces. Grumbling in dissatisfaction but leaving it alone for now, the housing was placed back much more gently.

The lower half which it now held up with one hand was the important bit, or so it seemed. A thin crystal of solid dust was held in place with two thin prongs which touched either side of the reddish structure. Both prongs were thin but…

This analysis continued uninterrupted for some time. The light appeared to be a rather simple mechanism compared to the amount of pieces required to operate the bridge, and the parts while fragile connected clearly with one another. What each individual piece _did_ , on the other hand, was not so clear. The orange dust was the same color as the flame it emitted in the grimm's memory, so it was possible a connection could be made there.

The light had been dark since it had been torn from the cylinder it sat upon, and since aside from the clear stuff on the inside everything was the same, the cord which attached to the bottom must have played a part in making the machine work. Without knowing what each of the individual pieces did the only thing the grimm could think of was a general 'makes it work'. If untethered it did not shine then the tether must be an important piece which allows the other pieces to work. Maybe. Without any way of testing each piece it was random guesswork. Each piece was important, probably, else why would humans include it?

So there would need to be more trips to the city to find these lights, and then once the lights had been found the pieces would need to be changed while still tethered. If the machine required something deeper in the cylinder then the grimm wouldn't be able to get at it anyways, so it would need to be done while the light was working already with all of its pieces working as intended.

A grumble escaped its maw before it heard the crackling of leaves under footsteps not too far away from it. They were slow and deliberate, obviously trying to obscure the noise and while not coming directly _to_ the grimm, were close enough to be a considerable issue.

Now what would it do?

 


	7. Conflict

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha learns that not all enemies are felled as swiftly as men.

The trio of Pyrrhha, Yang and Blake had split up into a loose V formation. Blake moved along the trees in silence while Yang trailed a little ways back behind her close to the tree line. Pyrrha was last, walking on the wide berth that split the forest from the edge of the cliff.

Blake had thought of this area soon after a couple of generally good hiding spots were checked. It was densely forested with a few copses spread throughout. If the grimm was smart enough it would have chosen this area since it was least likely to be casually spotted. A good place to hide, but fortunately Blake had happened across the clusters of trees and bushes during one of her midnight strolls.

None of the three knew what they were going to do once they found the grimm. It was acting oddly, that much was certain, but what its ultimate goals were…? That was a complete mystery. Ruby was skeptical that the beowolf was doing as the texts had said and was only focusing on the eventual destruction of humans and faunus. She wanted to capture them but Blake was fairly sure that any attempt to capture the grimm would end all the previous attempts by people had gone: something died, either the captured or the captor.

Pyrrha agreed, though she was more of the thought if it got any older than it already was it would become an even bigger problem. It could already travel around the kingdom without being detected by anything but an impressively intelligent corgi. It had to go now or risk becoming an even bigger threat.

Yang… Well, Yang was interested. She remembered seeing the white wolf for the first time, swinging Crescent Rose like it was trying to learn how it worked. It was smart, it probably knew how to fight, and it might even know how to use human technology. It was a scary thought that a normally weak grimm like a beowolf could become something so dangerous, but it was also exciting.

Blake was the first to see anything from her perch in the trees. Through the thin branches of a birch she was hanging from she could see the dim light of the moon reflect dully off of the back of the beowolf. It was standing in a grove and casting its eyes side to side as if it had been expecting the three women. Blake guessed it had when the next leap she made to get a better look immediately snapped the wolf's attention to her.

It didn't move and surprisingly no sounds of anger, be it growls or snarls could be heard. It stood its ground but nothing more. Blake was about to call for Yang but the brawler broke through the foliage soon after, eyes already on the target. Pyrrha was only a moment after, javelin and shield at the ready.

What followed was surreal for the humans. The grimm's pupil-less eyes seemed to trace over them before huffing, turning, and walking away.

It actually didn't attack. Honestly, truly, suspiciously, it did not raise claws to the three of them and had opted to walk away as opposed to stand its ground. Blake was still surprised despite reading this from her book. A grimm showing better judgement. Sure, it was weird to see a grimm take the top of a light post but that didn't seem wholly contradictory to their nature. Grimm killed people and destroyed what they made. They might try and learn how to effectively destroy a light but-

"We aren't going to let it just walk away, are we?" Pyrrha asked, sounding a bit incredulous as both Yang and Blake remained where they stood and did nothing to make chase. "We found it, now it's time for us to deal with it."

"Well, it's not attacking anyone right now. We might need to put Jaune on a leash so he doesn't accidentally run into this guy but he doesn't head out into these woods anyways." Yang now knew where the grimm was and could bring Ruby to it. If it didn't want to attack then Ruby's interest could be satiated and they could all go their separate ways. She didn't _like_ grimm, but she liked the idea of one not trying to kill every human it saw.

" _Right now_." Pyrrha emphasized. "Blake." The faunus' eyes shifted from the receding back of the beowolf to her friend. "You said that in your book when a grimm goes old it gets smarter, and with that intelligence it learns to wait until the most opportune time to strike and kill, right?" The gladiator didn't wait for the nod. "So if we just leave this thing here, it will keep growing stronger until it decides it doesn't need to turn its back on us. And then what do we do?"

Yang and Blake exchanged glances but were still quiet for a moment. They had no good counter. They could hold the grimm's freedom in good faith but what was honor to a monster? None of their kind had ever tried to communicate peacefully with people in the past, was there a precedent for changing the fear?

No, maybe there wasn't.

But the hope for it made it difficult for them to meet Pyrrha's eyes.

"Fine. I'll do it then." The redhead muttered as she flicked Milo into its blade form, and as Blake stepped forward to stop her but Pyrrha cut her off. "Even if this beowolf is stronger than fifty of its own kind each of us has driven through dozens each. It's still just a wolf, and I _will_ be careful."

Blake shook her head but stepped back again as the JNPR member flicked her blade again into its javelin form. They didn't know enough about the beast's age but it was old enough to no longer have fur and be completely covered in armor. That was a centuries old grimm at least, something which the world probably only had a few of. But they were still grimm at the end of the day, they could be destroyed with normal methods.

A bang and the javelin was launched at immense speed at the back of the grimm who near instantly dodged, to where exactly was hard to see in the darkness. The javelin returned to Pyrrha's hand after a moment and she dashed farther into the grove to find the wolf.

She didn't get far. She threw her shield up just in time for it to absorb a tackle from the wolf that had relocated since its dodge. It was undeterred by the wall, however, and using both paws it pushed down on the top of the diplyon slowly sliding its opponent back. Not to be pinned the woman struck out with her blade, pushing with her shield at the same time in an attempt to throw it off balance.

The blow and the bash didn't do much, if anything, and while the pause gave her a chance to duck away the beast was undeterred. Its brow was creased almost like a human's frown and the slight movements of its muzzle gave away the fact it was following every movement.

Stopping, the redhead narrowed her eyes at the grimm. She was sure that her blade had struck its leg just above the knee but the animal stood at its full height as if she had missed completely. At this distance she was able to make out more of the armor though and she did see a chip in the white material around where she suspected her blade had landed. So it was damaged, it just didn't feel it.

She swung her blade in one hand as she placed her shield on her back and the sword reformed into a gun then rose to-

Yang and Blake were waiting on a moment's notice to interfere in the battle and help Pyrrha. The Invincible Woman was putting up a fight, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that the single lethal strikes she relied on were currently being fully absorbed by the armor. Bullets, sword strikes, both caused damage but barely hurt the beast from what they could see.

What's more, Blake noticed that the wolf was barely watching Pyrrha herself. It was watching her hands and Milo. Was that why it wasn't really attacking?

"Yang." Blake asked quietly as she kept her eyes on the grimm's muzzle, the best indication of its focus. "It hasn't moved its eyes from Milo since the fight started. Is that what it did with Ruby?"

"Huh?" Yang said, pulled from her own focus on the fight. Mostly her own analysis of how Pyrrha was fighting. She looked at the beast's snout and how it followed the blade before nodding. "I guess, but it had Ruby's scythe in its hands. I didn't know if it was going to try and attack her with it so I jumped in."

The grimm was having a slightly more conflicted time. It was not really fighting brown since maiming her would mean more shepherds would be sent. This was more of an attempt to dissuade any attempts in the near future to track it down. Minor injury, that sort of thing. A side interest was the blade Brown used which moved between three different forms. The first two were relatively simple, it would either slash or stab, the third was a bit more bizarre since it launched some sort of projectile. None of them were particularly effective as they attempted to break through the beowolf in one slash. A clean kill.

That approach wasn't getting her very far, but so far the attempts to put her on the ground weren't going so well for it either. Her shield was impressive in how well it deflected blows and remained unscathed by its claws. Impressive, but a problem. How much more force could be used without harming Brown?

Did it matter if it did?

After a few more minutes Brown changed her approach. Instead of attempting a clean strike she used much more force behind her blows, striking around the head and, bizarrely, moving her blade in unpredictable ways.

Her blade would be traveling in a full arc, easily glanced away by a forearm, and then it would shift in space smoothly right under the block to nick the beowolf's neck. It also accelerated incredibly quickly, going from unmoving high or to the side to a full arc in an instant. This new force was proving more problematic so the beowolf began to actively fight back. It wouldn't let itself be whittled down by a thousand cuts.

The beowolf began shifting the assault swiftly, stopping its deflections and starting to counter.

Firstly it dodged backwards a few feet out of the effective range of Brown's sword. In time she switched to her Javelin style and held the pointed blade out like she was holding a stave, shield still at the ready protecting her frank from a lunging swipe.

The wolf was surprised Brown could move the weapon easily while maintaining direction, especially since it seemed end-heavy. A few thrusts were deflected while the grimm waited for the appropriate moment.

Moments that the woman used to rush in again. She was going to strike laterally across and the tell was in her posture. Before she could begin arcing her blade the beowolf shot forward at the same dizzying speed which had disoriented Ruby and brought a fist to bear at the outside rim of the shield. The beast weighed the same as an Ursa Major and was moving at an incredible speed. The resulting momentum tore the shield from Brown's grip and sent it flying off into the distance.

Or it would have.

The shock in the woman's face was palpable when the grimm leapt over her body to grab the shield before it impacted (and probably bisected) a tree standing not too far away.

After grabbing it by the rim the beast held the shield up to the moonlight to inspect it. Not quite a complete circle there was a sharp edge and an indent which could have a weapon rested against it. It was strong, effective. Its strikes before at the strength of a normal beowolf barely shuddered it and after striking the edge it had no blemishes. She was obviously a skilled warrior.

The grimm turned to see Brown rubbing her fingers into her wrist while her blade was lodged in the ground near her. She was injured, an understandable outcome.

She pulled her blade from the ground and it shifted rapidly between forms to expel any dirt that had clung to the metal. She seemed to be contemplating how best to attack from here. Her main defense was pulled away from her and despite the fact there was a strong pull on it trying to wrest it from the grimm's grasp it held tight.

More human magic. The steel creaked under the grip.

Without warning the human's sword became a javelin again, made a banging noise and rocketed towards the grimm. Aimed straight for the face this of all the strikes would have at least injured it but before it could reach the wolf's muzzle it used Brown's own shield to absorb the force, tossed them both into the ground, and leaned its entire weight atop it. Weapons pinned, Brown was now effectively completely disarmed.

In an instant Yellow was right beside Brown with her hands up in a fighting stance. The beowolf growled but didn't approach Brown again. The woman looked shocked that she had been disarmed, and a certain anger flowed from her.

Again the three humans stood awkwardly. Brown was unarmed and being held back by Yellow. Black was hiding though her scent was on the air, not too far away. The wolf waited until there was no movement and Brown had calmed down before it pulled the blade out of the shield and tossed it onto the ground beside the diplyon.

Victory.

It walked away for the second time that night, this time uncontested.


	8. Recovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha recovers from her fight with the Beowolf.

"Here's some ice."

"Thanks."

Team RWBY and Pyrrha were sitting in the team dorm room, the JNPR member sitting on one of the lower bunks with Blake, the other three sitting on the opposite side. All were carrying different expressions ranging from the obviously interested to the stinging pain of wounded pride.

Ruby had wanted to ask how it had gone but the fact the trio had entered silently, one of them injured, and no fanfare that something not-too-awesome had happened. Pyrrha was silent, and even though Yang didn't look concerned she wasn't saying anything either.

"Things didn't go well?" Weiss finally said, tired of the silence hanging over the room. She looked to Pyrrha's wrist which was now covered in a sack of ice. "Since you're hurt."

Pyrrha flushed with a bit of shame but held her tongue against saying the other two had abandoned her. It was true that she thought the best course of action was to deal with the grimm now, and that it might have been an idea to wait, but she stood by her choice. The others made theirs.

"We found the grimm on the south-east side of the cliff in a grove. It was waiting for us, probably hearing one of us while we were tracking it and it decided to just see what we did." Blake explained, standing from beside Pyrrha. The faunus wasn't sure whether she should just out and say that Pyrrha had effectively run off on her own. It would probably be unnecessary insult to Pyrrha's injury. "When it walked away-"

"I attacked it." Pyrrha sighed. "The beowolf has armor that would put an atlesian mech's to shame. Milo couldn't cut through it, only chip it. It's also strong, and heavy, and fast." Pyrrha lifted her head but her gaze remained pinned to the floor. "It was fast like taijitu's strike, heavy like an Ursa Major, strong like a Paladin Mech."

"And smart." Yang said once she was done. "Blake saw it first, the grimm spent the first five, ten minutes watching Pyrrha's sword without attacking back. It changed its blocking and dodges for each of the forms by the time it was done watching."

"Once I started using my polarity it stopped blocking and I… I was shocked. Until then it was going through the motions of defending when my blade was barely doing anything to it." She shifted her feet before looking up at team RWBY. "It tore my shield from me in a single punch. It didn't grab it or physically disarm me, it just struck the edge of Akouo with so much force that the strap that connects it to my gauntlet tore, bruising my wrist. I've used that shield to break trees, deflect a Death Seeker's claw, but nothing has ever been as jolting as that."

"It didn't attack once Pyrrha was stunned." Blake added. "It avoided her just to grab the shield and look at it. It may have never seen that particular type before, or an edged shield, but it gave Pyrrha a moment to recuperate."

"And when I used the javelin form it blocked Milo with my own shield, pinned them both to the ground, and I was… Defeated." Pyrrha pursed her lips before pushing her breath through her teeth. "Disarmed by a beowolf."

"How fast is it?" Ruby asked. She had been suspiciously quiet when normally she would have interjected to jump on the odd detail. She had a slightly pensive look on her face as her fingers scratched behind the ears of the recently-rejuvenated Zwei.

"It was moving fast enough to grab Akouo. About half as fast as you when you use your semblance. Its punch was… Probably just as fast." The gladiator said, refocusing on the youngest member of their group. "But I'm not sure. It is too heavy to be moving very quickly for very long, I think."

Then it would actually be faster than everyone bar Ruby in the room. Was that possible? Pyrrha thought about that for a moment before shaking her head. "No. That can't be right. It looked like it was moving quickly but that could have been the darkness, things look like they're moving faster than normal."

Yang glanced to the ceiling in thought before looking to Blake, who shrugged. "Fast enough to be a problem on foot, at least." The blonde said, knowing that much to be true.

The group was silent again. What exactly did they learn from this? That some grimm were stronger than others, that was proved definitively true, but they knew that anyways. It was something different… Maybe, just maybe, that there were some enemies that might be out of their reach.

Meanwhile, the wolf was considering the battle in its own way. It was still operating under the assumption that these shepherds had refrained from informing others of its location. Just another chance it was taking and thus the instinct to escape was being slowly but surely dulled by the routine of it all. In its paw was a thick branch which approximated the type of blade that it had seen being used by some humans. It was large, unnecessarily so, but that was the only way it fit within the grasp of the beowolf's long fingers. Lifting it the wolf tried to bring it down in an arc. Which it managed but only just.

After twenty of these swings it was growing slightly frustrated with the result of its attempts. The problem lay fairly intrinsically with the bone structure of the grimm. The shoulders were meant to rotate in a specific range low and laterally to allow for pouncing or lunging. Striking up or down like Brown had done meant the beast had to tilt its entire body to part of its back was exposed and _then_ swing down. It worked, but it was clumsy. It put the grimm off-balance, significantly so and that made it hardly a fighting style it could use to combat the shepherds.

Maybe if the shoulder was better? But then the problem became the forearm. It couldn't rotate like a human's, and brown had used that motion to strike twice in succession. So the sword Brown used would be impossible for a beowolf. As would those used by Black and White. What of Red's weapon?

It was a rod with a blade attached and one of the projectile weapons attached. Held with two hands or one hand? Both?

The beast lifted the branch into two paws and lifted it side to side. The weight was much different from the actual weapon but that was ignored, the ability to move it was more important. It remembered doing so days ago… So…

Same problem. With one hand it could effect a strike from above but that was a strain as a stretch and was hardly practical. Laterally, it was better since the angles might work better for the bones of a grimm. Still a bit awkward to move it above or below a certain inclination, but it was working the best for now.

Dropping the branch the grimm looked up at the sky. It was still a young night… And there was no life in the forests. There were trees, grasses, but they lacked the life of the animal. It could sense the menagerie of emotions coming from the buildings and a certain restlessness was pushing it to investigate. It had been meaning to find a nook to observe the humans from, and now could be as good as any time.

Now that it had a better idea of the patrols getting back to the campus grounds was not a very long task. Within a few minutes it was faced with the arches that mad up the aesthetic wall around the main buildings. Approaching from the side a large dome rose up into the air with a spire atop it. Going inside any of these buildings was a bit too risky even for the normally courageous beowolf.

So it skirted around the grounds with its ears at constant alert for the slightest sound of man. It was quiet, but that only put the wolf on more of an edge. All of the buildings seemed to have towers beside them as if they were helping hold them up, but the connection to the building was broken, intentionally or not it didn't know.

Regardless they were tall and easily scaled, and from there the grimm was able to get a much better view of its surroundings. Behind it rose the largest structure, a tower of some sort with glowing spheres in a landing just before the top. The tower rose out of a complex of buildings that while maintaining the same style looked as if they were built into each other, each with a slightly different roof style, and those with pyramids or spires competed to rise above one another. All was in a cool gray, one that shone almost white by the waning moonlight.

It was picturesque, but most importantly the buttresses looked like they could be used to observe from with some manner of protection from being seen by the odd passerby. It wasn't perfect, if someone were standing on the tallest tower the grimm could be seen in contrast to the darker shades of the domes. But it was unlikely there would be a 'perfect' spot since this was where the shepherds lived, they would always be a danger to the life of the beasts.

There was such a thing as caution however, and the grimm leapt back down from the spot to the ground and approached the next-largest building there, a tall building with two doors. It was long as well, fairly rectangular compared to the irregular sizes of the other buildings. Some noise could be heard from inside but nothing close to the door. Far enough that the grimm was willing to approach the building and then climb the distance up to the bank of windows above the doors.

Peering into the room there were long rows of tables with humans and faunus sitting in file eating and speaking. There were not many of them, only a dozen or so that were finishing their meals. Looking over its shoulder to the sky it was approaching the middle of the night, so the humans were probably consuming their food later than the average.

Looking up into the roof of the building from its position the wolf could already tell there would be no attempts to hide there. Smooth ceilings and well let alcoves meant that detection would require only the passing glance of any mildly intelligent being.

Further exploration of the grounds lead to finding a couple more passable locations. Despite there being a lack of grimm in the forests the amount of visibility shared between buildings was odd. One location which appeared secure was in plain view of one window or another, and that made it so that many of the candidate hiding spots were scratched off simply by glancing around. It was bizarre how many of them existed, but that might be attributed to the fact that the construction of the main mass of buildings looked fairly haphazard.

Eventually the grimm had made a full circuit of the structures. The buttresses and a few narrow alleys had proven themselves to be the only locations which could hide, if imperfectly, the beowolf. It paused near another set of fairly regularly-shaped buildings that stood on their own. A large amount of human scents emanated off of the complex and lights were lit on different levels and different sections, but the vast majority were dark.

It smelled too strong of residual negative emotions and humans to be the same as the other buildings. Even the room where the humans were eating didn't smell so strong of human. It warranted investigation.

But was it worth the risk?

Of course the answer kept falling more and more on the 'yes' side in an instinctual side. The age of the grimm forced preventative impulse, but the confidence of it was slowly starting to make it ignore that natural pessimism. And with that confidence it slid up to the side of the wall and listened closely. There were muffled sounds of speaking, bust mostly deep breathing and snoring much like a pig in its sleep.

So this was where the humans rested? That was useful knowledge, the grimm was fairly sure, but for what it could be used it had absolutely no idea. Going on a midnight massacre would play to its nature and probably be satisfying but it would not get far after that with the full force of the kingdom seeking retribution for the lives. So some restraint would need to be shown, but it was barely tempted in the first place. The benefit of age, in a way.

Actually, finding the place was better than it first thought. If the humans only returned to their place of rest during the evening hours then the rooms of the building might be empty. Not fully empty, no, to think that would be foolish, but _mostly_ empty. It would be the perfect place to hide in case it was detected elsewhere on campus since most grimm would either escape to the forest or fight to the death.

Well, possibly not, it had to admit to itself. There would need to be rooms it knew would be empty. And, if it were found in the first place there would be problems more pervasive than momentary evasion.

So did it investigate as contingency 'just in case', and in doing so possibly reveal itself? It had been risking itself doing everything it had been that night, but the danger was moderate compared to what it could have been doing in the darker corners of Vale proper. But that was hardly an excuse.

Deciding to take a middling route, it would climb along the darkest side of the building and avoid all windows, dark or not, just in case a human happened to be looking out. It wouldn't test its luck by trying to sneak a peek into the rooms, so on and so forth.

Perfectly safe.


	9. All the plans of Grimm and Jaune...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaune makes the mistake of misplacing his Scroll while the Grimm is about.

It was another nice night to be out moping on a roof, and Jaune Arc was never one to miss out on something like that. Tonight though he was just waiting for a friend to get back. He was sitting on the edge of the roof and holding his chin up in his palms. Pyrrha wasn't back at the dorm room yet but had sent a message ahead she was in RWBY's room.

He was a bit worried. He believed in everyone and their abilities but it was still difficult to not be around a team member. That was what he was used to now, having everyone in team JNPR (and sometimes RWBY) around was the norm, and not having anyone – even Ren—around was weird. That and he liked being around for Pyrrha. She rarely needed any help but when she did he liked trying to be there for her, even though sometimes he didn't know what to do.

_That's being partners._ He thought to himself, smiling.

He stood then and rolled his shoulders before cracking his knuckles by bridging them and pressing up towards the sky. He let out a contented sigh before walking across the rooftop to the opposite edge. Looking across the paths towards the towers of beacon he started daydreaming.

Thirty feet above him on the next tier of balconies the beowolf stared down at the second Yellow. One of those who followed the Green, Pink and Brown. He hadn't attempted to chase the grimm during the day so it seemed likely that the human was one of the slower ones. Many of the shepherds the wolf had seen thus far had a certain velocity they were able to achieve. They were humans of slight weight that relied on their momentum to strike from what it saw, so was the human the strong without speed?

It was certainly something to consider in the future if the chance came to observe his skill. Figuring how much speed played into their abilities could give a better understanding of the race's defense on the whole. The flock didn't mirror these abilities, so what made these shepherds so able?

Thinking about that for a moment the grimm climbed further up the building to find that there was no access to the highest level of the building where the roof rose into gentle swoops of eaves. There was some awkward angles one might be able to sight something resting atop the roof but it was overall actually one of the best locales it could have happened upon for hiding.

As it snuck around the roof it found a space under the eaves which was about the same size as a human. It was awkwardly situated under the steepest part of the roof and also recessed in several feet so to actually jump down to it the grimm might have to leap all the way down to the bottom of the several story building to get back away. For an air vent which was probably too small for it, and the probable jump that would follow were easy deterrents. Living literally atop the homes of the shepherds, while a way to keep a base of operations wholly without suspicion from man, would be too dangerous to furnish with what it needed.

The grimm was pleased with the fact it had an out-of-sight area to work on the human technology. That which might be considered the most basic of amenities for a human was the groundwork for learning for the wolf. It was an impressive first step for a member of a species which barely created anything for any purpose and only hunted for the anguish of humans.

Of course the beowolf did not think along these specific lines, but the pride meant it. It was king among beowolves in its own mind even if there were none in the forests to compete with for the title. Only shepherds resided here. There were no allies, only passive adversaries like Yellow, Red, and Black. They were so far individuals the wolf counted as non-issues… Contingent on the fact that they didn't attack it.

A sort of dais which connected the wings of eaves on the building was barely enough but it would hide the grimm from plain sight. The morning would bring with it a chance to observe the humans again, and possibly if it was feeling more reckless it might take the opportunity to search through the building. Probably not, but it was an option.

As it was about to flatten itself out and wait for morning it heard some harsh words from over the eaves. It was curious enough to check since the wait until morning was going to be long enough as-is. Far below it could see the yellow hair of the same man as before, now with Brown. Both were looking over the edge of the balcony they stood on at a shining object five stories down for them, more than eight for the wolf. The two of them went indoors hastily, probably to retrieve whatever had fallen down to the ground.

This presented an interesting opportunity.

To jump from this height, while jarring, wouldn't cause injury. It would be a bit loud, the noise from the fall would create a thudding noise as the force shook windows nearby… But the object shone, meaning it was technology, meaning that it could be examined.

It had only a few seconds to make its decision. Every moment wasted was another moment the humans could see it if it jumped down. If Brown saw it she may call for assistance, waking more shepherds and making everything quite a bit more complicated. The blonde… It wasn't quite sure, it hadn't seen him doing anything before so he could either be one to hold their ground or a pushover.

Uncertain, but now actually doing something, the grimm jumped from the eaves. There was two seconds of falling and then it landed with a similar sound as if someone dropped a sack of bricks from the same height. It was heavy, there was some rattling, but it wasn't _loud_ per se.

Pulling itself up from the low crouch it used to diffuse some of the force it scanned side to side quickly to find the shining object. It snatched the item from the ground and held it up for a moment. A picture of the blond was there along with human writing. As the wolf was about to poke at one of the buttons it heard the click of a door opening.

Acting quickly the beowolf used all of its strength to toss it from ground level to the third floor, then scale the rest of the way to the balcony Brown and Blonde had been on before. Once at the top it laid flat for a moment against the wall to the left of the door just in case a human walked by. A second later the confused words of the two below could be heard riding up in the air. One, the male, was confused as the sound of underbrush being shifted could be heard while the other, Brown, sounded a bit annoyed. The two spoke for five minutes before Brown could be heard sighing and searching through the brush as well.

Once sure that neither would be looking up to the walls of the dorm the wolf swiftly scaled the rest of the way up to the eaves. Safely atop the roof the wolf looked at the device again and began lightly pulling or pushing on it.

The tactile nature of a device was something the grimm wanted to determine first. While there was a screen similar to the one it had seen when using the lift up to the top of the cliff, it also had some movement to it. The ends of it on the side could be pulled away and towards each other to a range until the white sides touched each other completely and the display disappeared. Opening it again the screen reappeared, again showing the Blonde's face and some shapes around it.

The different shapes obviously had some meaning but the semiotic nature of squares and circles meant little to the beast. It would touch a circle and the screen would change to something else with different circles and squares and letters and pictures, then one of those would be pressed, so on and so forth. It was odd, and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the movement from one set or another.

Through the night and into the early morning the grimm toyed with the device. Eventually it learned that the top-leftmost button if it was a circle returned the beast to the previous screen until it reached one where there were a few different boxes. Some of them had pictures of different items in them, something which surprised the grimm. It carefully held the device in its claws as it scrolled through images of the shepherds in different regions around Vale, intently looking into the faces of Red, Black… So on. They were all generally smiling, happy at whatever was going on.

Other things were a bit more operator-engaging. The wolf found, by accident, a function which allows it to capture the image of something directly in front of it. It had found this out when it pressed one of the buttons and after a short buzz nothing seemed to happen. When it shifted but the backdrop behind the scroll did not it only took a few attempts to actually understand the general mechanism. It recorded the dais atop the roof, the stars passing behind the spheres of the main tower, just menial things to see what was displayed. While interesting for a time that too was soon considered mastered and the attention shifted again.

One of the more surreal experiences was when clicking through it found images of all the shepherds it had met thus far as well as some individuals it did not recognize at all. They were farther down the list, which it had learned earlier could be moved through by lightly dragging a claw along the surface upwards or downwards. After looking at the eight it recognized easily it clicked on White. The box shimmered for a moment before the picture expanded to be the size of the screen.

After three or four seconds the image shrank again and fell into another square with some lettering beside it. Below was a picture of the blonde, similar size, and a line connected the two of them

The beowolf was uncertain if anything was happening for a moment before a tired and angry voice echoed out of nowhere. Recognizing it as White but surprised she was so close the beast whipped around to face her. But saw nothing. Ears twitching it realized that the sound was actually coming from the device itself. Grumbling its surprise the beast lifted the device again to hear a sigh and then a long string of tired and irritated words. Then nothing.

The image of White faded out and the picture of Blonde came back with the main screen. It was a bizarre exchange, maybe the devices could speak to one another. Since the woman was not near it had to be done through a distance somehow, though the grimm couldn't even begin to imagine what process would allow sound to travel silently from one place to another. It seemed quintessentially a contradiction.

Little else was accomplished with the device. It was clear that there were many tasks that it could perform even if what exactly it was doing wasn't clear to the illiterate wolf. Regardless, it treated the item with care and watched closely for some things it could understand. Some of the symbols appeared often, others not so much, some colors meant certain things, others seemed interchangeable. It spent the entire night fiddling with device and it wasn't until the break of dawn and seven hours of continuous use had passed that the device flashes yellow twice before shutting down.

An unwelcome surprise to the beowolf but it had found out all it could from the device in a single night. It would need to put it somewhere where the blonde could find it so that he did not continue searching. More of an investment than being a good individual, the grimm was suspicious that if anyone could be seen using their device it would be the one who had accidentally cast it from high above the ground.

So, the grimm put it back on the fourth floor balcony that the Blonde had forgotten it on before, then scurried back up to the roof to watch the slow but steady procession of students walking from the housing to… Wherever it was they went.

Meanwhile…

Jaune, sitting at breakfast with the rest of JNPR, opened his scroll and groaned, head hitting the table.

"What's got you down? You're lucky you found it again." Nora asked through bites of food.

Jaune just let out a long groan before holding up the device for his team to see. The normally smooth surface of the device was covered in innumerable tiny scratches fine like hairs but crisscrossing every which way. Jaune was happy that he'd gotten his scroll back, but couldn't the guy have _not_ decided to file his nails over it?

 


	10. Allies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A woman working for VPD does something suspicious.

**Njala:**

"Up and at it sergeant." Said officer Argent as he clinked his mug against the hard edge of the desk. The woman who was currently not-so-sneakily catching some z's in her seat lifted her head up to check who it was. She seemed to roll her eyes before placing her hands on the desktop and pulling herself up straight. "It's unlike you to sleep on the job… That punk giving you a run for your money?"

The dark-skinned woman scoffed, scratching the back of her head with a hand while she rolled her shoulders to work out some stiffness. "Municipal funds hardly wind up in my wallet sir, it's the mayor who's going to be more worried about street lamps going up in smoke."

"But _your_ job if you can't find it!" The mustachioed man retorted with a smile in his voice. "Quite strange though, I must admit. Not often some kids decide to steal lamps and whatnot. Hardly ever really."

"Right," Njala sighed, nodding to the notepad in front of her. "but I'm getting a feeling that it's nothing dangerous. Those dust thieves wouldn't be looking for these old fixtures for dust so it's probably just a couple kids doing it for kicks. They'll probably either go away on their own or slip up and get seen." She paused for a beat before pointing at her superior sternly – if a bit sarcastically, "Not that I would ever sleep on a case and just hope it would go away because it was annoying."

"No, of course not," the man laughed, throwing back his head. "We all know that we have bigger problems nowadays. Just keep on with it and we'll find those kids, give them a good spook." He pointed right back at her and grinned. "And you should clock out. We don't just _hand out_ overtime and you smell. Get a shower and review your notes at home, will you?"

"I don't know sir," Njala grimaced holding a hand to her chest dramatically and speaking in an overly sweet tone. "I think I'd just love to stay for a—" She cut off the sentence and stood, stretching. "Or not, I like your idea better."

"Thought so." Argent chuckled as he left.

Thankful for the fact that she had her own office in the department Njala let off a long slur of conversational volume swears. She started high and worked her way low with all the curses she knew, all the while collecting everything she needed to make it look like she was going to do some work from home. The door would stop her words from leaving the room, or at least she suspected since she hadn't been reprimanded yet.

Everything packed she checked her watch and swore again, this time not because she thought it was fun, but because she was _definitely, super late._ She thought it was early, but as it turned out it was around noontime.

Even moving as fast as she could, and hailing a taxi instead of taking the bus, she only got home half past one. Jogging up to her house she fished around her pockets for her house keys. No dice. _The other pocket?_ Still no. _Bag?_ She was about to start fishing around when the door swung inwards and an older woman walked out smirking.

"Late _and_ locked out, huh?" The woman chuckled, stepping to the side and waving for Njala to enter. "You should probably choose one or the other next time, yes?"

"Eh," Njala shrugged, stepping through the doorway, "Worse comes to worst I'd just have knocked down the door or something."

"Glad I was here early then…" The other woman mumbled to herself, rolling her eyes. She followed Njala into the living room where the police officer unloaded her stuff onto the couch. "Just _how_ exciting is it to try and track down a Beowolf?"

"Quite boring." Njala quipped, reaching into her bag and pulling out her folder. "But I'm damn sure where it's hiding now. Three tracers were brought to Beacon before they were deactivated."

The woman whistled low. "That's a pretty ballsy place for a Grimm to be hiding."

"Question," Njala asked, her voice faux ponderous. "Do Grimm have nuts?"

"No." The woman deadpanned.

"Well duh," Njala stuck her tongue out, "Anyways, I'll stop by there and sniff it out-"

"Sniff its nuts?" The woman joked, her expression cracking as pealing laughter escaped from her lips.

"Oh go fuck yourself Gige-"

The two of them shouted at each other jovially until Njala grabbed what she needed and slipped back out of the house. Wearing a dark sweatshirt, navy track pants and white trainers she was jogging down the street towards the bus stop. While she made her way along she held a scroll in her hands with a thick backing on it. It was red with a gold insignia laid into the back, the screen spotless even though the operating system on it seemed old.

Head down she sprinted along familiar roads while locking the vast majority of the files away in a partition of the devices hard drive. She was doing it on the move because she didn't want to be fiddling with it at home. It would be much safer once it was in the hands (paws?) of the beowolf. When she was done moving the data she force shut off the device and put it into a satchel on her back.

Unfortunately for her if there was anything people remembered easily it was bald women, so if someone came along looking for her it wouldn't be too hard to see where she was going. That was the risk of doing business though, so she decided to take it easy when she hit the bus stop. She slid onto the bus and sat at the back quietly, her eyes on the front where she could see everyone who came on.

She didn't think there would be any problems. _That's why I'm totally_ not _worried_ , she thought to herself wryly.

An hour later and she was standing at the base of the cliff that lead up to Beacon academy. Well, not quite. There was of course the perimeter which had been set up by Atlas to keep suspicious people out of the academy. That was sort of the hard part of the evening. The cliff which Beacon sat upon wasn't exactly publically accessible. That made sense given the fact that the academies were basically military training grounds.

Thankfully, though the Huntsmen had far higher combat training skill than any normal officer or military man, they could not perform arrests. That still fell on the police (or the army in some cases) so there was a code they had which allowed them to access the lift.

But it also let the Headmaster know that there was someone coming.

One flaw with the system was that if a student entered their number first for lift access, then an officer, the alarm wasn't sent to the Headmaster. The reason? Supposedly it's so that the student doesn't become suspicious if they are being tailed by a plainclothes officer. The reason which is more commonly floated, however, is that when Vale was building in the lift the council was worried about Ozpin's reach.

There had been times in the past where people who were suspect for serious crimes were saved from penalty by headmaster Ozpin… This conflict had led to the aforementioned glitch being 'accidentally' installed during a hardware upgrade.

One small group of unawares students later and she was topside and quite a bit closer to her target.

From there it was a lot easier to mosey on over to the forests around the school. As she wandered on over she cast her eyes to the Academy proper every now and again. She traced her eyes over the circular arches which surrounded the school as well as the main promenade which people were strolling along. She was no longer so worried about being followed and sort of wanted to enjoy the sight.

She never actually spent any time in or around Beacon. She avoided it altogether most the time, but it was impossible to deny the fact that it was majestic. Pale spires and buttresses made it look like an ancient castle filled with magic and fancy…

_Maybe someday._ She allowed herself to think before she stepped into the underbrush. _But for now, I gotta find the beowolf._

That, fortunately, didn't take long. She found it standing over a large rock, one of the vandalized lamp posts between its paws as it tried to pull it apart. Njala smiled to herself at how easy it was to actually track the thing; she obviously wasn't as rusty as she thought she might be.

Crouching in a tree behind it she kept her breathing quiet and steady, not worried about her emotions reaching the Grimm. It took a few minutes but eventually it slunk off into the forest to one thing or another. Possibly even look for more public property to dismantle then try and destroy. Whatever the case Njala leapt down from the tree when she was sure it was far enough away and dashed over to the stone.

Pulling open her knapsack she pulled out the scroll and two memory sticks, placing both on the rock next to the mangled lamp. She made sure to close the scroll tight but leave it on so that when the Beowolf opened it there would be something to catch its eye. She knew that the scroll would be fine, the Grimm would be hard pressed to break it normally, and based on how it was methodically taking apart things… It was quite well adapted to fiddling.

Smiling to herself as she picked up some of the items she heard a commotion in the distance and froze, listening closely. Judging by the noise it was a young girl, shouting at something. She didn't sound worried or surprised so Njala assumed that the person hadn't run into the Beowolf. _Good, because if it was found out now this entire escapade would have been for nothing._

Stepping out of the small clearing near the Beowolf's stuff she headed back home, reasonably sure she wouldn't have to interfere for a while to come.

Hopefully.


	11. Bribes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby finally decides on the best course of action to tame the Beast.

"Stop! Running! Away!" Ruby shouted through the forest as the she lost sight of the grimm for the umpteenth time. She was getting tired of this little back and forth. It wasn't like she was doing anything wrong! She just wanted to see the grimm. It just walked off every time she tried to approach and when she followed it would move faster. If she started to jog it would speed up a little bit more, so on until Ruby was almost using her semblance.

The beowolf was just completely uninterested. Or scared. Did she annoy it? No, she was being cheerful. She wasn't waving blades around like Pyrrha was.

_Wait... He likes weapons._

The reason why she was out in the woods looking for the resident reclusive possibly-murderous monster was because she was interested. It had been four days since anyone had last seen it, and even Zwei seemed to have trouble sniffing it out. Nothing weird had happened, nobody had been hurt, and aside from Jaune's scroll being scratched up a bit (which she had a hunch about) nothing bad had occurred. So obviously the grimm wasn't up to anything. Well, it wasn't right now.

Drawing Crescent Rose she extended the scythe completely before balancing it arc-down on the soft forest floor. She waited for a couple minutes before sighing and starting to tap her foot. "Come on, I don't just let anyone touch my weapon."

Her voice was swallowed by the forest.

Scanning left and right she eventually turned a full circle to see the beowolf standing on its hind legs within some underbrush, watching. It didn't approach, but also didn't move when she looked at it.

 _Well, that's a bit creepy_. She thought to herself before taking a few steps away from the scythe. She motioned to it with her hands then pocketed them and took a few more steps back. _Just don't decide you need to practice on me._

The wolf appeared conflicted as it approached. It took a few steps through the bushes quiet as can be before tilting its head questioningly towards Ruby. It raised its muzzle to the air and took a deep breath, probably to see if anyone had come with her. She hadn't really told anyone so she didn't think anyone was around.

The grimm lowered its nose again and approached her with a slow gait, eyes on her until it was within twenty feet. It looked to her then the scythe before motioning with a paw for her to step back.

Pleased with the fact she had actually gotten the beowolf to approach her she did as asked and took two steps back. It was like trying to pet a wild dog or a new cat. They just had to be given there space and the proper encouraging. This was one dog that Ruby didn't think she was going to be playing fetch with though. It was already scary smart, and she was sure that somehow it already knew what being patronized felt like.

Once she was about six feet from the scythe the grimm finally walked all the way to the weapon. It peered at crescent rose again in much the same way it had when she had first seen it a week ago. It looked closely at the handle through the firing mechanism to the blade itself before looking up at Ruby. She just waved, and it was apparently accepting of that response.

It grabbed the handle of the scythe in one paw and swung it from its position vertically to sideways in front of it. Grabbing it with the other hand just below the 'head' of the scythe it brought its eyes close to examine the materials that the weapon was made from. Some of it was cool and heavy while others seemed light and the same temperature as the surrounding air.

From Ruby's perspective it was practicing unsafe weapon handling but if what Pyrrha said was right even if the weapon collapsed to its carrying form the beowolf probably wouldn't be to too hurt. Even now to test the sharpness of the blade it was running a finger along the twin edges… Something which would cut the fingers of a human or faunus.

 _Grimm really don't use any weapons, do they?_ She thought to herself. She had fought a lot of grimm in her time and none of them even used rocks. Some would hide but that was the extent of it she supposed. So that might explain why weapons were so interesting to it. It had fought humans before and seen other grimm fall to them, so something which would let humans who unarmed pretty weak, fight grimm, might seem cool. _Well, if it's doing that then it might be learning how to teach other grimm how to use weapons. But… Wait, am I teaching it how to fight people?!_

She was brought out of her thoughts by the grumblings of the grimm. It was holding the scythe with one hand while pointing to something in the firing mechanism. Ruby wasn't sure what it meant until she saw the empty slot where the magazine was loaded.

"Ah, you don't need those." The huntress-to-be said, waving her hands 'no'. The wolf continued to stare at her blankly, obviously not catching on. _Does it not understand 'no' or does it not understand what I mean?_ _Probably not that smart._ "No."

To her surprise the beowolf looked back to the weapon without making any more noise.

 _So… Maybe it does._ She paused on that thought before shaking her head. _No, even a bird could understand words if you trained it. It's just normally smart for an animal, super-smart for a grimm._

For a few more minutes the grimm continued to draw the ends of its fingers along the weapon and stare at the smallest detail. Ruby wasn't sure what it was looking for in the weapon. Yeah, there was a lot in it. There were different mechanisms to change the shape of it, compensate for the crazy speed it got up to, things like that. But that was all under the surface. It couldn't admire craftsmanship when it barely knew what it was in the first place. She was perplexed.

Eventually it stopped and held the blade in one hand while moving to a nearby tree. Ruby wasn't worried about the grimm harming Crescent Rose since it was so robust so she watched with curiosity as it rested the blade perpendicular to the trunk. Its hand was on the right side of the tree holding the scythe while the blade rested against the left side. Was it trying to do a standing cut through a tree? The blade was sharp enough that if enough force was used it would work, but to do it from not moving and across the fibers of the tree was a bit… Silly?

Before the grimm could try Ruby walked forward a few steps before stopping to check and see what the wolf would do. It paused and dropped the weapon down slightly to rest it on its outside edge before turning to look at her. Its eyes were narrowed in suspicion but after a moment it stepped aside and looked at her expectantly.

Ruby picked up her weapon before taking a half-step to reposition herself for the best angle at striking the target. She waved the grimm over which did as asked after a moment of confusion.

It stood a few feet behind Ruby which gave her the room she needed to comfortably raise the scythe into the air at an angle and… Swiftly bring it down at a perfect angle. The momentum of the blade did the rest as it slipped through the tree. Unlike a single-edged blade which would have let the tree slide apart the twin edges in the curve of the scythe removed a thick slice. The tree immediately tumbled to the side with a crackling of wood and branches.

Pleased, even if it was easy for her, she turned to see an Atlesian knight staring at her. The grimm was nowhere to be seen, thankfully, but soon she heard the sound of Goodwitch playing through the mech's speakers.

" _Ms Rose, I do not know what you are doing, so please come to my office so we may speak about how to respect the nature around the school premises?"_

_Fiddlesticks._

While Ruby was making the solemn trek back to the school buildings the beowolf was returning to its hide out in the trees. It had managed to keep its little workstation out of the sight of humans, the sole exception being whoever had put the devices there three days prior. It had been suspicious of them and hadn't used them for two days, but cracked on the third.

The screen similar to the one it had stolen from the Blonde but significantly larger and a better fit for its hands. Unlike that one, though, this one had a very simply explanation of how to use it with cartoon renderings of human fingers tapping on different symbols for different effects. Some of it the grimm already knew from the experimentation it had done before, but a few options were completely new. Some like being able to quickly activate something without returning to the origin were useful but others like changing the noise it made were a bit less so.

But the truly useful thing, the suspicious thing, was the set of objects that came with it. Two small slotted items could be inserted into the device to show one of two things. The first was a selection of human symbols that when touched would make a noise. After some toying about it became clear that the speech was the repetition of the word, something that was verified by choosing longer and longer strings of letters and the speaking taking longer and longer.

It was interesting, but on its own didn't help. That is where the second item came into play.

The second device when connected to the screen showed a series of scenes with different outcomes depending on the word chosen and did not play sound. Early on it became clear that if you selected two characters, the character in green wouldn't do something shown in a short video. If you selected the three characters it would continue as normal.

The two together created an indispensable resource. Using the choices of the scene it could learn what a series of characters meant after trial and error, then use the speaking device to hear what it sounded like. It was impossible to repeat what the device said since the beowolf had no vocal cords but it could listen, and in that listening remember.

It hadn't had much time to search the city for technology because of that. Two days observing humans, one working its way through the device, and the morning had been interrupted by Red appearing nearby and hollering after it. To be fair the grimm was starting to understand what made up the blade, if only in general terms and the morning was not actually wasted. Just delayed with less important information.

It sat at its rock and opened up the character differentiation program and watched the scene. Looking at the commands available which it knew the grimm would spend the next twenty minutes observing each outcome for differences and similarities. It would take a while, but it had time.

* * *

Yang and Blake were standing on the very top of the campus residences. Yang was holding up Jaune's incredibly scratched scroll to see if the perspectives matched up.

"Yep. Whoever took the pictures must have been up here." Yang said as she closed the device and put it in her satchel for safe keeping. "Hard to believe it. It's like a hundred feet up here."

"We could do it, someone else could too." Blake reminded Yang, who shrugged. "But it is weird that they'd go all the way up here to take some pictures. Seems likely that whoever did wasn't in their right mind."

"I think the trying to slice the scroll to death kinda makes that clear."

They both stood in silence for a moment before Yang made a humming noise.

"It wouldn't be so close to the campus." The faunus countered before her partner could say anything.

"Well, if it _was_ its huge claws could easily scratch up a scroll."

"It could, but so could anyone wearing a gauntlet."

"And climb all the way up here…"

Blake took a deep breath before sighing. "It's supposed to be smarter than this. If it is this close to the dorms then it is writing its own death warrant. We might not go out of our way to deal with it but there are second and third years here who would be _more_ than happy to kill a grimm on their doorstep."

"But this is the one place where even Zwei couldn't find it." Yang pointed out. "Up here there's nowhere for a huntress to see it and none of the students would think to check. It's also so high up that it could see everywhere without anyone being able to see it clearly. If it were watching us this is the safest place outside the forest."

Blake hummed, not convinced. "It seems an unnecessary risk."

"What, do you have a weakness for puppies?" Yang joked, poking Blake in the ribs. "Big ones who are centuries old and covered in an exoskeleton like a buuuug?"

"Hah hah." Blake replied. "I'm barely used to Zwei now thank you very much."

"You're still worried."

"We all are."

"True."

A few more moments of silence passed before Yang's scroll started playing a happy tune. She pulled it out and answered.

"Yang?"

"Rubes?"

"Yeah, let Weiss know that if I'm not at lunch it's because I'm planting trees." Her tone was dripping with misery. Not true misery, just the same tone a child uses when they're faced with something they _really_ do not want to do.

"Why are you planting trees?" Yang asked, a brow rising into her bangs in confusion.

"I cut down a tree trying to show the wolf how to use a scythe. One of the patrols found me so now Glynda has me digging holes as punishment." It sounded like she was begging for something but the sibling had no idea what. She did find it incredible that the school was going to make Ruby plant trees as punishment for cutting one down. "So I might not be back until late."

"Alright, I'll let her know."

"Thanks."

"Also sis?"

"Yeah?"

"Next time let us know when you're going to play with the super intelligent monster, alright?"

"Alright…" At least she sounded guilty there…

Blake was close enough to have heard the entire exchange and smiled herself. "Our fearless leader has managed to get in trouble for mundane things despite her own best efforts."

_Let's hope she keeps it that way._


	12. Mistakes, Soon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang does something which will come back to bite her. Jaune continues to freak out, quietly.

_Thud, thud, thud._

_Bmp, bmp, bmp._

_Thud, thud, thud._

_Bmp, bmp, bmp._

It was the best part of her jog, when the music and the footsteps were _just_ in sync. She never planned it so when the music switched and that first beat landed right when her foot did… It made her excited. How could it not? It was one of those _nice_ things that just happened.

Taking a deep breath she smiled as she continued to pound the path through the trees picking up speed. She might not be the fastest of the team but she could keep the pace up and hold it there for as long as she needed to. Chasing the bass and grinning like a damned fool she started to hum along to the bouncing melody, completely uncaring of the amount of noise she was making.

Music too loud it could be heard in the trees around her and powerful strides required a powerful impact. Galloping horses would have made less noise.

Turning the last corner of her lap Yang caught sight of Blake leaning against a tree, book in one hand and stopwatch in the other. They were keeping times since it was admittedly one of the best ways to get Yang to work harder. Competition, including competing with herself was enough to improve her skills faster than if she was working without a goal.

She pushed herself further for the final stretch and sprinted as hard as she could to the goal line. She was certain this time would be her best yet.

"Fifteen seconds slower." Blake called as Yang continued on for the next lap, not even pausing.

"How?" Yang turned mid-stride and skidded to a halt kicking up a small plume of dust behind her. She placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at the Faunus playfully. "Are you sure you didn't miss-click on the stopwatch?"

"I'm certain." Came the reply as the brunette closed her book and turned the face of the clock to show the time. 5:23. Definitely slower than her previous time by a fair margin, and by enough that even if the faunus had made a mistake she would have recovered faster than that. "I even got through more pages of my book. It's definitive, you have a limit on how long you can keep running for."

"Impossible. Fifty laps is hardly the limit of my abilities." Yang complained as she struck a pose flexing her arms before dropping them and pretending to mope like Ruby did, arms straight down and shoulders rolled forwards. "I have failed us." She sounded devastated before giving a dramatic sigh and stretching. "More laps then."

"I think that's enough for today." Blake said as she approached the fighter. "I'm nearly through my book and I want to save some of it for tomorrow." She pulled out her book again and held it spine up out towards the blonde so she could see only a few pages were left in the last novel in a series Blake loved. "You've set a new record for yourself to beat tomorrow, let's pack it in."

"Yeah, yeah." Yang walked over to the trees and pulled out her duffel bag. She pulled her soaked top off and replaced it with an off-yellow track jacket with her emblem emblazoned across the back. She tossed her running shoes in as well as her socks and replaced them with some sneakers. Changed out of most her running things she pulled the bag onto her shoulder and jogged up to Blake.

The faunus was staring at the obstruction which was blocking most of their path. The grimm was sitting on its haunches in the path with almost expectant eyes. Somehow she wasn't surprised.

The grimm had developed a tendency of finding them whenever they were in the area of its hiding spot. If any of the members of team RWBY walked by they would catch sight of the beowolf but it rarely approached, just watched what they were doing. Ruby claimed that it approached her, but the rest were fairly skeptical. It did tend to just stare. None of them were really willing to try and bribe it with weapons to get it to come closer.

"Huh." Yang hummed before raising her hand and making a waving motion with her hand, simultaneously 'hello' and 'move'. "We're headed out so… Could you move?"

The beowolf tilted its head in what looked to be thought. It was looking at Yang's bag intently like it needed something. Yang had no idea what since all that was in there was sweaty clothing and some towels. A bit useless for a grimm which was very much so not her size and from what she knew of the species didn't sweat. Or secrete anything aside from saliva. They didn't even bleed when cut so…

"Guess we just walk around it." Yang said, shrugging. Whatever the wolf wanted she didn't have it. She took the lead and walked right past it. She walked about as close to it as she could and found that although it shifted slightly away it didn't actually step out of the way.

Once they were past the grimm and well on their way the twitching of Blake's 'bow' let Yang know that they still had company. The faunus glanced to her with a slightly concerned expression which she answered with a shrug. The pup was following them home, but hopefully it would decide to give up before they got within sight of the school buildings.

After the pair plus one had been walking for about five minutes Yang stopped, turned, and quirked a brow at the grimm which had been following in near-silence. It just stared back, unabashed by the fact it had been caught following them. It simply continued walking for a little bit and pointed its nose once again at Yang's bag. It wasn't sniffing the air or anything so it looked like it was indicating the actual thing itself, not the contents.

"Ready to play charades with a huge wolf-man?" Yang asked her partner before dropping her bag in front of her and opening the zipper. "Because it doesn't look like it's going to be giving up until we hit the dorms. Then it'll probably just wait on the roof."

"Alright, I'll sit out this round." She looked woefully at her book which looked like it was going to die a pitiful death over the course of only two afternoons.

Yang waved her off before turning her attention back to the beowolf, who sat on its rear and waited.

"I guess you don't know what charades is." Yang said, tapping her chin with the crook of her index finger. "That's going to be a problem."

_Well, it will probably just stare intently at what it wants like it probably has been doing for the last fifteen minutes._

So she unzipped the bag and shifted through her things to check and see if something weird had fallen in when she wasn't looking. _Shirt… Extra sweats, socks, socks I should have taken out two days ago, shorts… Nope, nothing of a mystical nature._

Pool of objects now set at _everything she had_ she started pulling out everything one at a time. There wasn't much to be embarrassed about in front of an ancient grimm so old shirts and socks that needed cleaning were raised into the air then discarded In a small pile to her side in short order. It was surprisingly fast actually, the grimm would just look then shake its head slightly to everything shown without actually looking too closely at them. _At least it knows how to say shake its head 'no'._

Soon the bag was empty and Yang was left with a pile of her clothes in the dust and an intently staring beowolf.

"I don't know what you want. My gauntlets aren't in here if that's what you want to look at." Yang sighed. She was just about to give up on the grimm when it moved forward to the bag and pulled it to itself for a closer look. "Told you, it's empty."

The wolf ignored that as it lifted the bag up, eyes seeming to scan for something or other before it let out a huff and put it down again. Lifting two claws it carefully held one end of the bag before pulling on the zipper to seal the top.

It then pointed down at the empty bag with its muzzle.

"I'm not… Ah…" Yang turned to tell Blake that she had figured it out but the faunus was curled up in a near fetal position with her eyes wide. _She is really into that._ Trashy romance, of course. The faunus had kept her secret vice quiet for a few weeks but eventually it came to light. Embarrassment eventually turned to quiet pride in the collection. It was still weird to see the normally prideful (but not in a bad way) woman so moved by crappy writing. "Nevermind."

The grimm was trying to put the duffel bag on when Yang turned back to it. The wolf was trying to put the strap over the front of its chest, across from its right shoulder to below the left arm. It worked, kinda, though it was sitting at a bit of an awkward angle and the straps weren't a good fit. But it worked and the beowolf seemed pleased.

"You just want the bag?" Yang asked, scratching her head. "I guess I could get you one… But why do you need it?"

The grimm was having half-luck here. It looked like it had gotten its whim across what Yellow was saying completely flew over its head. Pieces of the sentence made sense but the order of words could mean different things. Also some words as far as it knew meant the same thing. The tone was good, she was making asking a question, a rhetorical one. A week of staring at videos had made understanding a scene useful, the practical application was not going so smoothly.

Tugging the bag off the grim set it back on the ground gently as if the fabric was somehow fragile. It gave up for now, trying to work its way through the rest of what it wanted to request would take too long and the humans were going somewhere. It bowed its head in thanks before turning and starting to lumber away. It heard Yellow call after it with another question but it ignored it for now. It would head back to the copse for now and see if another approach might work better for getting a point across.

"Get back here mutt!" Yang called but didn't move to make chase. She just pursed her lips before putting her clothes back into her bag. She started mumbling to herself, "Now I know what it wants, just not what it wants it for."

Later the same day the grimm approached the outside edge of the academy and circled until it found its normal infiltration angle. A few times over the past couple weeks it had used this route in order to avoid the usual comings and goings of the humans. At certain times of the day more movement would be going on whereas at other times the paths would be swarmed with moving clusters of people going one way or another.

Now, it was a bit later in the day when the paths and roads were all but completely deserted. It had chosen this time not for the safety of it per se but the fact it afforded more room for error. It was carrying the devices with it in one hand, careful to not crush the screen or inserts as it ran on three paws. It first entered by the 'wall' of arches that surrounded the buildings. It waited there for a moment to check and see if there was any movement up in the tower, and finding none it dashed the two hundred feet from the arch to the first set of buildings. Listening and keeping a nose to the air it sidled along the walls until it had a clear line of sight to the next free standing building.

It zig-zagged closer to the main complex until it was within effective sprinting distance. The target was one of the buttresses that stood tall above the ground. They were perfect for checking for human movement while also remaining fully out of sight thanks to the distance and angle. There were three that could be moved to, and the furthest one afforded the most direct route to the dormitories thanks to the stone bridge which connected it to another tower.

It was a bit far for a mad dash though, especially one which would be off-balance thanks to it not having both hands available. It was the only way to make good progress to the dormitory though, as going to the other towers would just be a delay. It would need to climb high enough up that it would be out of sight, then just scale back down again to run the rest of the way.

Decisions, decisions.

Eventually it decided to go for the third tower. It dashed across the cobblestones and reached the tower in good time, but as it was pulling itself up the stone a small piece of rock was dislodged and fell to the ground. It ignored it and continued to climb until it heard a distinctly questioning grunt coming from below it. Looking down it saw the Blonde picking up the rock. It had a split second to either try and swing itself around the column to hide itself or wait and see what the human would do. If he acted the same as Red and her cohort had been recently then there would be no issue.

Of course nothing was ever quite simple when Jaune Arc was around.

The blonde looked up to see where the stone had come from, presumably the tower and raised a hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun. Once his eyes had adjusted they widened once he realized that the grimm RWBY had been talking about was _literally on campus, not just 'on campus'_.

"Wh-why are you here?" He half-whispered, half-shouted, whipping his head left and right to see if anyone else was around to see. Seeing nobody he looked back up and… Found nothing. "What. But."

He ran around the other side and the beowolf still wasn't there. He made a full circle around the tower before stepping away and tilting his head. _I'm not seeing things, am I? I mean, big white armored thing, red marks like a_ _ **grim**_ _, rocks falling…_

"Mr. Arc, might I ask what you are doing?" The tapping of a toed boot let Jaune know he was in for a doozy trying to explain this away. Turning, there was Glynda, brows raised in query.

"Ah. Nothing." Jaune smiled, his neck flushing as he tried to think of a good excuse. "Just admiring the architecture. Don't take enough time to look at that sort of thing. Nice to just look at it sometimes, you know?"

He started awkwardly giggling, that with his subpar explanation seemed to not impress the huntress who looked simultaneously amused and skeptical. She said nothing and walked past Jaune without raising any fuss. Arc sighed and checked that the professor was out of sight before running to a better position to look up at the rising buttresses.

Looking carefully he saw nothing at first before catching the eyes of the beowolf who was now clinging onto the side of the main building. It looked like it was waiting but barely wasted a moment once it could see Jaune. It dropped out of sight, not just moved down, but literally _fell_ from some distance up. It surprised him for a moment before thinking to himself _super-grimm can probably fly, can't they? Scratches up my stuff but can soar like a dang bird. Hey, wait, it's the one who wrecked my scroll, isn't it!?_

Suddenly rejuvenated he dashed from his position to try and catch up to the grimm who had vandalized his stuff. It was a bit difficult though as even as he saw the grimm appear again it disappeared from view. He walked slowly as if he was going to try and sneak up on it but by the time he reached the dorms he had no idea where the wolf was. He was sure he saw it climbing around the side of the school only minutes ago but now it was nowhere to be seen.

He spent another four minutes looking before giving up and heading to RWBY's dorm. Knocking twice it was only a couple seconds before Blake opened up and greeted him.

"So, does it come on campus often? Because I thought you guys were only joking before." He opened dryly. "Because it nearly knocked me out with a rock when it was climbing around near the first year wing."

"Probably twice a week, that's a guess though." Blake replied, unmoved. When Jaune used that tone he wasn't really offended, more exasperated. That _did_ make up a good 50% of all his emotions. Varying amounts of reluctance. The faunus' brow creased slightly. "We told you all a few days ago when we found evidence it was spending a few nights on the roof."

" _THE ROOF?!"_ Jaune nearly screeched before biting down on his tongue, stepping into the room and making a rather wide range of unrelated hand movements. It was like he was trying to recapture his calm, bottle it, and force it back down his gullet. "You didn't say that?"

"That was a question, and the answer is that we said it was staying on the top floor which you need to climb to. Pyrrha, Ren and even Nora listened." Blake was trying her best not to criticize Jaune, he had been a bit out of it that day.

"Ah… Right…" The blonde sighed and squeezed his eyes tight. He remembered something like that. Kinda. Vaguely. Maybe not. He kinda tried to believe that the grimm was just staying out in the woods and not coming here. He had nightmares for a few nights when Pyrrha had lost. He didn't admit that but inside his own mind he could accept that that may or may not have factored into him missing something obvious. Like a grimm literally on campus. "Sorry."

The faunus shrugged. He was sincere. A bit out of it, yes, but still sincere. "I'll check on it, alright? Don't worry about the wolf, it hasn't attacked anyone and looks like it's more interested in what we do than what we taste like."

A couple minutes later and Blake was scaling the side of the building with gambol shroud on her hip. Not for defense, more out of habit. At least that's what she told herself. She and Weiss were the two members of RWBY that were still a bit uncomfortable with the concept of a grimm having the freedom to roam the kingdom. She didn't have as much of a reason as Weiss, who hadn't seen it aside from a passing glance weeks ago. Blake had actually seen the wolf show a better nature, something which was impressive, but still had some deep-seated reservations.

She'd overcome them. Yang was able to deal, so would she. It would just take some work.


	13. Night Classes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake teaches the ABCs.

Blake was expecting the grimm to be on top of the dorms but hadn't particularly _wanted_ it to be there. All the practical reasons for why it shouldn't be there existed, things like possibility of being spotted, the poor footing which could lead it to make excessive noise, so on, so forth. There was also the practical problem of having to deal with a canine grimm, something which was a bit less than ideal for a cat faunus. No personal reasons, just instinct. It made things just a little bit awkward. She trusted it, mostly, she just didn't really feel comfortable with it like Ruby or Yang did.

And that's why when she pulled herself over the edge of the roof she let out a bit of a sigh. The wolf was sitting on its haunches with its ears perked, probably listening to something in the building. It was a bit pointless since the beast didn't understand language from what the Faunus had seen. It could indicate things but what it wanted from an object or person was unclear. Well, that's what she knew from what Yang had said. Blake had seen the grimm just about as many times as Yang but hadn't prodded the grimm for information before. Wasted time, probably.

"You really shouldn't keep testing your luck." Blake warned. She spoke because standing in silence with the grimm as it tried to get its point across would have been incredibly awkward. She'd follow Yang's example here, maybe it could understand some things? "What do you want?"

The grimm looked as if it was thinking for a moment. It tilted its head to one side for a moment before picking a scroll up off the ground and activating it. Blake was about to ask it if it had stolen that one but held her tongue. The answer to that was undoubtedly 'yes' and asking would yield no results. She watched curiously as the beowolf picked up a memory extension and slotted it into the screen.

 _Alright, that's a little bit more suspicious. It couldn't have stolen that from a store, could it?_ As she was thinking about that the grimm approached on three limbs carefully like some sort of dog-gorilla. She took a half step backward and it immediately stopped and tilted its head again. _Weiss isn't this jumpy about the grimm and she's seen it twice._ Blake mentally chastised herself before approaching to see what it was trying to show her.

 _Red finish? That's not something they hand out here._ The faunus took the offered device and checked it quickly to see where it could have come from. The white style was common and often handed out to students since they were high-utility and fairly robust. They were expensive mostly for their ability to detect the aura around it and turn it into a reading a hunter or huntress could use on the fly in combat. Red ones like this were often used by law enforcement or experienced hunters. It lacked the aura detection and that allowed it to have stronger shielding. _What has it been up to that it found a military-grade scroll? Someone would notice it had gone missing and used internal tracking to get it back._

Focusing again on the screen itself she was surprised to see it was… A kid's learning program. Specifically one for the deaf. It helped them learn what words meant in context by playing a little scene then letting someone select a word during the scene to see what it would do. The green outlined person was the one influenced so it was really difficult to miss what was going on. She'd seen advertisements for it online every once in a while and sometimes ads ran for it before vids… She was starting to mentally cut herself off when a question popped up because there would be no answer.

When she looked back up to the grimm it seemed to nod before taking the scroll back and inserting another memory extension. It looked at the screen for a moment before poking at a few things with some intent. _So it made good use of Jaune's scroll when it had the chance._

She was surprised when a smooth and slightly accented voice said 'dictionary' in a deliberate way. The grimm snuffled before holding the tablet out for Blake to see. One the screen was a listing of words in alphabetical order with definitions. It was, as the voice clip had said, a dictionary. She nodded absentmindedly and swiped across the screen to see that it was actually a very detailed dictionary-thesaurus-encyclopedia. Selecting the word apple gave a general definition, synonyms, antonyms (somehow), and a long entry on what apples were and where they were grown, so on and so forth.

She had to return to the home screen to check the brand, but once she was there the emblem of the Remnant Compendium further compounded the oddity. It was an expensive resource and renowned for being an excessive reservoir of knowledge that included texts that came from antiquity. She wanted one of these but her scroll didn't have nearly the capacity for it. Hell, she was surprised an external drive had the capacity for it.

The grimm still looked a bit expectant so she spoke this time. "Yes, it's a dictionary."

It grumbled it's agreement as Blake continued to poke around the device. _One contact, zero personalized settings, no files, no music, no net history. It has literally nothing in it._ That was impressively bizarre. She had managed to keep from asking any questions rhetorical or otherwise until now but she had to shake her head. "How did you break into a factory to steal a newly minted scroll?"

Handing the device back she looked at the grimm expectantly. It of course didn't do anything because it didn't know what was being asked of it. After a moment she pantomimed using the device before pointing to the grimm, which huffed again before doing whatever it was doing. It sat on its haunches and turned so that Blake could see if she stood at an angle.

It started with the scenes. At the menu where the player could choose the scene fifteen of a hundred had been completed, according to the counter at the top of the screen. It chose one that it had already done and watched intently as the scene played out. It showed a little girl walking up to the counter of a fast food restaurant ordering some fries then leaving. It was fairly short, probably thirty seconds, and when it was done it returned to the start. A black bar along the bottom showed five words that could be chosen.

As the girl approached the door the grimm selected 'close' which made the doors slam shut, the girl walked into them and the scene paused again asking if it wanted to return to the beginning of the scene. It was fairly simple, and the grimm seemed to understand since it used the end of a finger to circle around the door. It selected the word and copied it, though it checked by putting the word into the scroll's search box to check. It spent twenty seconds checking each character to see if they were right.

Certain, it unloaded the scenes and loaded the dictionary. It typed the word in manually while using the word it had pasted as a guide. It would check to make sure an entry would show up then to Blake's confusion emptied the search results. It returned to the main screen and then started leafing through 'manually' in the dictionary format. It approached the 'c's and then compared the second letters to the 'l' until it found all the words that started 'cl'. It took a good minute but eventually it found close the manual way.

Having now found it twice it pressed a speaker icon and the same smooth voice from before said 'close'. It played the same word four times before looking to Blake who stared back for a moment before getting the implied request.

"Close." She repeated. The grimm seemed pleased before looking down at its scroll and collapsing it. It looked expectantly at Blake who nodded. "Same thing." Blank. "Yes, closed."

The grimm was pleased and returned to its work to find another example. Blake watched for a few minutes before she came to believe that this was intentionally set up. By having the child's scenes and the dictionary the wolf would eventually learn language. It would take a while and would be crude but the understanding would eventually develop. It also would explain why it had access to the materials. It would be impossible for a beast to find an untouched scroll and even more so to purchase and activate the programs. Someone had gone out of their way to invest money in the wolf.

Who? In all of Vale teams RWBY and JNPR were the only ones that knew there was a grimm inside the walls. At least they should be. Of course the scroll disproved that. There was a chance that the beowolf had come across all of it in a fluke but that seemed incredibly unlikely. So someone found the grimm and decided that it needed to learn, and in deciding that they must have known that it was ancient.

So a teacher from one of the academies or a hunter. Probably someone on campus then, but who?

Her ruminations were going nowhere fast so when the grimm prodded her so it could demonstrate its process again. She watched, distracted, as the grimm tried to puzzle out a much more difficult scene that had the words 'stop', 'go', 'yes', 'no'. It knew what yes and no meant but was having trouble discerning what the difference was to their parallels. They seemed to have similar results despite the fact they were obviously different words. She tried to point out the differences after a while when it was obviously struggling, to minimal success.

Over the next half hour or so she determined a few things about learning a language when you had no concept of language. First, imperatives with nuance were almost indistinguishable from other imperatives without nuance, and they were nearly impossible to explain in simple terms, so it was better to just lump them all together. Nouns were easy, an apple was an apple. Just don't try and explain why a fruit was somehow all of those things. Verbs in general were easy, keep them simple. Running and dashing and sprinting all meant the same things in general, just try to keep them straight. Finally, the only adjectives worth explaining were colors.

In fact the colors were fairly useful. It used colors to refer to people, Blake herself as Black, Weiss as white and so on. Mostly based off of hair color as it could see, which she decided worked just fine. Actual names would work better, but she left that for now. Jaune and Sun probably would find being called Yellow 2 and 3 annoying after a while.

By the end of the hour she was actively trying to teach the grimm some of the concepts with basic luck. She had a bunch of nouns nailed down, some basic verbs, a few color adjectives, enough that they could command and query of the wolf easily. It remained that it couldn't speak, but there was no getting around that. It didn't even try to speak as some animals did in movies, it just listened and huffed or grumbled its yes and no. Which were actually surprisingly clear since they sounded functionally similar most the time.

The scroll beeped to let them know it was low on power and the screen flashed twice. _How long has it had this?_ More questions she was asking herself. _Three week battery life and it's used all of it up. Hm._

Blake was feeling better about the grimm after doing the teaching but it was still a bit discomforting to let it know where they slept. Eventually her better nature won and she took the scroll in her hands. She put in her contact info, Ruby's and Yang's. They were mostly just in case since she was planning on doing something specific. She pulled her own scroll out and started a video call which the grimm answered without any hesitation. _Probably the shiny 'answer call button'._

She jumped down from the roof to the dorm window, sliding inside before walking to the bathroom to grab a mirror. In the screen she could see the almost confused gaze of the beowolf who seemed to be shifting in place.

Mirror in hand she walked to the window again and found the charger which she used to keep her scroll powered during the night. Taking the cord she set it on the sill then carefully placed her scroll there and plugged it in. The mirror now came into play as she attempted to position it so the grimm could see it was being plugged in too. She then switched from camera display to screen display and activated a cursor to circle the power indicator which was now yellow and showing a small charging animation.

She could hear the wolf make a sound of understanding. It didn't move, probably because it could hear the sounds of people exiting their dorms to head to dinner. Instead Blake climbed back up the building and took the scroll from it. She pointed to the sun and made a circular motion which she had managed to get across as sign language for day and stopped when her finger was pointing to where the sun would be in the morning, then pointed down.

The grimm mirrored it in acknowledgement, which actually surprised Blake. Not because it did so, that was expected since she managed to teach time of day to it in terms of a hand, but how well it did it. Beowolves had a lot of lateral motion in their arms but not a lot of vertical, and the wolf had just made a full circle easily, something that Blake was pretty sure should be impossible. _An evolutionary trait?_ She guessed. This was the first time she had seen any evidence aside from the white armor. Internally shrugging she inclined her head to the grimm and waved a goodbye, which it returned.

They parted ways then, Blake off to dinner and the Grimm to do whatever it did during the night.


	14. Spar, Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang makes a mistake leading to grave consequences for the Grimm.

"I don't need to be here for this."

"You don't, but you're tagging along anyways."

"You asked me, and you doing this alone is insanity."

"Hey, give the pup a chance. Everyone else has and we all have our necks."

"I'm sorry I don't run into the forest every other morning for a quick 'running with the wolves'."

Heiress and Brawler walked along one of the main paths to the cliff side. Weiss had been complaining at an interval about the fact she supposedly had to come along with Yang for this. It had been weeks since she had last seen hide/armor or tail of the grimm and everyone else was talking about it. Even Blake who had been the voice of good reason was now being friendly with it! Weiss as the only one left with their head on straight, so she had to watch Yang and make sure nothing happened.

Which was the carefully crafted, shoddily-founded excuse she had made for herself and spoken aloud when the blonde asked if Weiss wanted to watch a sparring match. Between whom? Who else? The meathead and the beowolf. Hardly the most surprising thing to hear, but still concerning.

But she wasn't there to see the grimm, see what everyone seemed to be enamored about. Well, maybe. She just might have a small amount of curiosity to see what everyone else enjoyed but she had been left out of. It was more embarrassing because they didn't actually talk about it that much, it was just a contrast to how the team was always up to date on everything together. She was being left behind a bit and she would not stand for that.

The pair came to a stop in the glade which was the location of Pyrrha's duel with the wolf. Weiss didn't know that, but did see the scraped trees and few gouges in the soil that still remained after a month's worth of wind and some rain. The chips off of the trees were from a sword or bullet, she could see that from the thin marks that edged through the bark of a tree a few feet to her right.

"Now what?" She asked, looking to Yang who just had a grin on her face.

"It's around. It always comes and finds us when we're around here. Anywhere from the edge of the path to the cliff is its roaming grounds." Yang looked left and right through the trees, seeing no motion. It was fairly flat here, and the lack of underbrush meant that someone could see for quite a while through the filter of bark and branch. "Hmm… So it's gotta be…"

Turning she looked to Weiss and her smile twitched. She could see the grimm standing a few paces behind them silently, not even breathing. She didn't want to look at it lest Weiss notice and check herself. Being surprised by the silent beowolf would be funny for Yang but probably continue to fuel the heiress' childish contempt. She knew it wasn't serious, but sometimes the heiress complained even when she wasn't really angry, and that could get tiring.

But… Was it worth it?

"It's behind me right?" Weiss said in a dry tone. Not sarcastic, just patient in a kind of patronizing way. Yang just shrugged and nodded. "You could have said that I'm not that afraid of a-"

She turned and saw that the Grimm was just a little bit closer than she had been expecting. She looked up to its full height and blinked twice before awkwardly waving. To her surprise the grimm waved back, if slowly. She knew that it did that, she had heard as much from Blake, but it was still odd to see in the flesh. Or carapace. Whatever the grimm had.

"Sneaking up on us?" Yang teased as she walked up and poked it in the chest. "You usually stand in front of us, what's with coming on from behind?"

Her tone was dramatic, Weiss noted, more Ruby-ish that normal. The teasing tone was more like she was speaking to a child, the statement more sobering, the question had more of a rising intonation. And she moved her right hand a lot. She wasn't looking for an answer either, because she stepped away once the grimm huffed.

"What was that?" Weiss asked, brow raised.

"Hm? It's how you talk to it when you think it won't understand." Yang explained as she unzipped the pouch she kept on her hip. "It understands emotions well, it is a grimm after all. It knows when you ask a question, it knows when you're joking. Sometimes it makes a noise to say it understands, other times it just stares at you."

"Ah." Made sense. A grimm was able to sense humans by their emotions, but she hadn't known that a beowolf could detect positive emotions as well like… Joviality. "So, like a big dog?"

Yang nodded and pulled out her collapsed duffel bag, the bribe for this. She was pretty sure that the grimm would have been willing to spar for a chance to watch Ember Celica in action, that's how Ruby had managed to befriend it in the first place. This was more of a goodwill thing. The grimm had things to carry and now would have something to carry those things in. It had taken a few days but she had found a similar one at a reasonable price. The grimm could have her old one, it was the more robust of the two anyways.

She untied the straps which kept it collapsed and the high-density foam began to suck air in to give it back its shape. As it returned to a much less wrinkly form she pointed down to the bag. "Duffel Bag." She then pointed to the beowolf. "Yours."

The grimm nodded slightly.

"But." The word was still functionally similar to the wolf as 'wait', 'no', and 'stop'. 'But' had some of the nuance thanks to a lesson from Blake the day before. "We fight first."

"You're still sure about this?" Weiss asked.

"Absolutely."

The beowolf tilted its head slightly before stepping forward and picking up the bag. It placed it over its shoulders again for a secure fit. It shifted the strap a few times before Weiss stepped forward and secured it by tightening some buckles. She had for force herself to do so, but she wasn't going to be obstinate.

Yang was surprised. Suspicious, but surprised.

The beowolf rolled its shoulders before walking over to a tree and scaling it slowly, then very quickly before turning around and hugging it upside-down. Apparently pleased with the result it fell back to the ground and pulled the strap back off and set it aside. The bag had barely shifted on its back, hopefully meaning it would be very quiet when it was scavenging the city for supplies at night.

"So we have a deal?" Yang asked, her gauntlets shifting into combat form, the bracelet expanding to allow the shotgun shells to load. The clicking and sound of shifting metal immediately caught the attention of the wolf, and the beast shifted forward to take a look. Glancing from the weapon to the warrior it grumbled its agreement. "Alright, get ready."

Weiss moved out of the way, standing thirty feet away from Yang while the wolf walked some distance to a clearer area in the glade. Once in a position it liked it turned to face Yang and stood on all fours. It rocked back and forth on its paws so that it was loosened up enough to dodge in any direction swiftly. Yang took note of that before stepping forward into her own boxing posture.

They stared at each other for a moment, Yang's eyes on the grimm's upper body, the Grimm's eyes on Yang's wrists. It was a long time for Weiss, who was a bit nervous.

Eventually Yang dashed forward swiftly crossing the distance. Just to warm up she jabbed at the beowolf's chest. The wolf read the strike and ducked back a bit in order to avoid the strike, though it couldn't out-distance Yang very quickly thanks to her initial speed. She followed up with a low to high strike aimed at the side which was interrupted by a change of angle. Instead of continuing to step ahead of the woman it moved to the left to break some of Yang's velocity.

The woman turned swiftly and was about to continue to press when the grimm dug it's feet and claws into the soil and pushed forward at a much higher velocity. She moved left to dodge as the grimm had but the beast's much larger armspan meant that she had to raise her arms to block against the open-palmed slam had aimed for her chest.

The force pushed her back through the air and made her perform a flip close to the ground in order to reorient herself. Digging a hand into the ground as she crouched she was able to regain her footing, glancing up to see where the beowolf was. It was stalking forward, slowed slightly now, and holding its paws slightly low. On two feet it was slightly off-balance thanks to the length of its upper body but it was standing with a strong stance.

Isn't that Velvet's posture? Yang thought as she stood and hopped from foot to foot to loosen up. _It has been researching the upperclassmen, huh._

She still had the element of surprise. She was small, but she had a significant punch. She just needed to land one and the grimm would be in for some pain.

Unbeknownst to her, the beowolf had seen her punch a car through a series of grimm, and was anything but unaware of the fact that despite the fact she seemed to be the slowest of the bunch she had the most force behind her strikes. That's why it was sure it had a way of making her use her weapon since she was avoiding doing so. A typical show of strength.

Yang dove forward again and avoided taking so long strides in her sprint, now taking shorter ones at the same speed to allow her more control of her motion instead of having to rely on luck in between each footstep. As she approached she took an impressively hard right and left, changing rotational direction mid-motion before the back of her hand soared on a collision course with the grimm's neck. It was a speedy motion, one which surprised the beowolf in how smoothly it had been executed given the necessary finesse.

It made no effort to block.

Yang's wrist stung as physics took place. She winced and kicked off the wolf's chest, making use of the animal's stagger to relocate for another attack. She was second most surprised of the people present when she felt a grip tighten around her shoulder and jar her, holding her in place like a vice. Not enough to injure, just enough to make someone curse under their breath, which she did.

The most surprised of the people present was Weiss. She had watched the opening exchange nervously but after seeing the beast mostly just dodge most the attacks was mollified. It looked like her team's trust in it wasn't misplaced, something which was obvious by the fact it hadn't tried to kick Yang when she was down after the first attack. The brutality that she had just seen, though, was almost impressive. Brutal because it was demoralizing.

She saw the backhand strike and had felt bad for the grimm which was on the receiving end. Her feelings were misplaced though as even though the strike landed square on its neck it looked unfazed. True, the beasts were not well understood so maybe they didn't require air, something which made a throat strike so lethal but… It had stood like a monolith. When the hand impacted its neck it should have by all rights been tossed back but it leaned into the attack at the last moment forcing it to slide backwards as the torn earth absorbed most the shock.

That's the same force that would send a car flying. How heavy is that thing? How could it be that heavy? It crawled around the roof at night so it couldn't weigh more than a truck. It would make too much noise, or even cave a part of the roof in. To be unmoved it would be about the same weight as a Paladin mech, a damn bizarre evolutionary decision.

And it wasn't, the force dispersal and reaction afterwords to grab her wasn't an evolutionary growth, it was a learned reaction. A death stalker was one of the few grimm which had a tendency to attack its own kind, and many hid within the networks of caves which were plentiful outside the kingdom of Vale. The wolf and some of its own kind had wintered in those systems and more than once a deathstalker of incredible age had tried to drive them out. The oldest of all of them the Wolf was tasked with dealing with them. Something which required endurance, defensive traits, and most of all an ability to prevent oneself from being tossed into a chasm by immense force.

The empty air was of course more dangerous than hostile earth for a beowolf.

Holding Yang up with an arm for a moment the grimm huffed.

"Nah, I'm good. Give me a moment." Yang said as the wolf put her down. She took a breath and stretched out her wrist and shoulders. Taking a few seconds to get some deep breaths in she clapped her hands together. "Alright pup, let's see how you deal with fire."

Flicking her wrists her gauntlets came to life, loading up her shotgun shells into their active position. She raised her hands into position again, the grimm raised its hands in a catching position again. Yang smiled as a spark lit in her eyes before flame rocketed along her arms, lighting up her hair in a yellow and orange dance. Her smile turned into a smirk as she lowered her hands down slightly towards the beowolf… Slowly… Slowly…

Kt-chick

That sound was the only warning before two shells were spat out of her gauntlet and collided with the beast's shoulders at high speed knocking it back for a moment at the surprise. It hadn't been expecting the explosion, or the heat-

Through the heated haze the flaming outline of Yang was only an afterimage before her fist collided with a defending paw. The force was still startling and the wolf had to change stance in order to prevent itself from falling flat on its back. Another punch followed shortly after that made it growl deeply in annoyance. It ducked low to avoid that one only to get another blast of heat colliding with its face. During that moment of distraction Yang landed on the ground and delivered an uppercut under the curve of the grimm's chest.

This strike definitely had an effect, lifting the grim off the ground and forced it a fair distance into the air. It recovered again, shaken but unharmed as more shots split the smoke which had formed. It saw them this time and blocked them both with an armored forearm which stung but was less distracting. Through the smoke a white outline of the woman's hair was visible, the shadow where the head would be pointing towards the grimm's location in the air. It almost had a cocky tilt to it, and when the beast landed its growl was easily audible through the trees.

Yang stepped through the smoke with a cocky smirk on her lips. "What?" She drawled, placing her hands on her hips while her hair burned white. "Gonna drop out so soon?"

The beast made a sound like a scoff before rolling its paws. The arrogance of the human was astounding. Pride welled up in the beast as it dropped on all fours again and growled a taunt, which only made Yang grin wider.

"Ready pup?" She asked, teasing. "Here… I…" She aimed her gauntlets slightly behind her. The dual firing of them drowned out the rest of her words as she sped towards the wolf at a higher speed than she normally sprinted at. The grimm ignored that, preferring to focus on what the woman was going to do. The same mistake she was going to make.

Four shots as opposed to the now-usual two rocketed ahead of her which the grimm ignored, allowing them to collide with its front without defense. They hurt, but more importantly created a fog of smoke right in front of it. It watched for the sight of her hair through the smog intently knowing that there would only be a short period of time to make a counter-play. Two more shots pierced the fog ahead of her and then…

A head of hair…

Yang felt like most of her organs had kept on going when she suddenly found herself stopped and choking on her own smoke. She was sore all over her chest and down into her legs with something gripping her around the chest. _Did I just black out?_

No, she hadn't, but she was disoriented. She looked up to see the grimm holding her up from the embers on the ground that her shots had made from their impacts. They were blackish scars, dirty things, but she barely remembered making them with how dizzy she was.

The grimm had managed to stop her charge but Yang obviously hadn't been expecting it. As she had been traveling through the smoke it had jabbed her in the chest, hard. Relatively speaking it was the same as the force she had been using but the difference between expecting an attack and not expecting it was great. She was quite stunned, honestly.

The beast set her down and she waved off any concerns while taking deep breaths. She was going over what had just happened in her head and why her chest hurt then realized what had happened.

"Sneaky." She croaked airily as she took shallow breaths. She was sure she hadn't broken anything but it felt like her diaphragm was just a little bit upset with her. "Next time we do this remind me to remind myself that you're smarter than you look."

_Click, Click, Click._

Between a couple clicks of a heel and the slapping of a riding crop against a palm it was easy to tell who had arrived. Weiss hadn't noticed because she was dashing over to the laid-flat Yang who looked like a hot mess with mud staining her outfit and a nasty bruise darkening her breast just below her collarbone. The injured woman did notice and tried to speak up but her voice failed.

Weiss saw the panicked expression and her head whipped around to see what was so shocking. At that point she was too late to shout something as the grimm was being tossed in a shallow arc down the clearing before sliding a few feet to regain footing. It growled at the unexpected intrusion and Weiss could see red eyes narrowing at the huntress.

"Miss Goodwitch!" She shouted to the professor, but she got no response from the determined strides. She called again but the teacher seemed unaffected, which was explained by an Atlesian combat medic setting down a medic kit down beside the heiress without her noticing his approach. Glynda wasn't worried about Yang's health when faced with a grimm like the Wolf and thought Weiss had nothing to say. _But! Dammit!_

It was easy to see that the Grimm was readying itself for a fight. It was digging its rear claws into the ground as it stared down the barrels of Atlesian Knights and foot soldiers. Twelve of them in total and a huntress was a do or die situation.

 _Run!_ Yang screamed in her mind since her throat wasn't cooperating. She was being dragged away with Weiss, the latter pushing against the soldier's arms but finding it difficult to stay with Yang and evade the grip at the same time. Glancing to the injured woman, who gave a nod, Weiss broke away a moment to sprint to the front of the guards. She could already feel the tight grip on her arms and she made a snap decision.

Explaining the situation to Glynda would take time she didn't have since the soldiers were making it clear from their vice grips they weren't going to let her stick around.

"Wolf!" She shouted across to the grimm. "RUN!"

The beast's eyes moved to the heiress for a moment, unsure, but was forced to comply anyways when the first volley of concentrated fire slammed into its joints and the plate across the top of its head. Raising an arm to block some of the shots it grumbled as a completely different heat from before started to singe its carapace. It had known flame for a long time, it was common in human weapons and had since developed a fair resistance. Whatever was striking it now, however was a completely different thing.

Another strike similar to the one which had struck it away from Yang collided with it like a charging death seeker. Flying backwards much more quickly this time it managed to catch a foot and roll back onto its feet. Without noticing the woman had approached and blasted it back further. In the corners of its eyes it could see that more soldiers had arrived and were attempting to surround it.

Backing up a bit as the second set of bullets struck it decided to take White's advice and turned, sprinting away. It burst past the closing end of the pincer and started to make a beeline for the Cliffside. It dashed through the woods as stray rounds filled the air over its head. Keeping an eye to the sky it caught sight of an airship starting to float up overhead. Something similar to a curse escaped its lips and it made a hard left to head back towards the city through the woods. It was less than ideal but it wasn't nearly as bad as throwing itself into the line of sight of the machine. It still remembered the sight of the gunships tearing Nevermores from the sky with the guns mounted to their undersides. The beowolf was a robust beast, but it was supposed to survive encounters with small groups of humans. Death machines that hung in the air like black suns were somewhat outside of that particular range.

It managed to break through the woods to the edge closest to the city but there was still a rather impressive distance between the forest's end and the cliff itself. There was a half-kilometer mad dash to make… But it could see more ships approaching farther off. It had lost one ship, but could it lose four as well as all the soldiers? Probably not, the forest was large but it wasn't thick, and if they had many people…

No, the city was the best chance. Humans didn't attack humans so hiding in the city, or at least dashing through it, seemed the best idea. It could try and make its way out to the wall and leap over, humans wouldn't expect that. It would take some climbing though.

The thought forced it pause. Red, White, Black, Yellow. Leaving was complicated by the four. But there was no choice as far as it could see. This was a matter of life and death, and time to wait outside the walls was no object. It could wait a year or so if need be.

Steeling its resolve it crouched onto all fours and took a deep breath, muzzle pointing towards the edge of the cliff. It could see that there were humans starting to arrive by wheeled vehicles. It would need to break through, probably knock a few aside. So be it.

**/**

Arguing with faceless soldiers was now fairly high up the list of Weiss' least liked things, somewhere between Blake's unwillingness to talk about her problems and Port's lessons. It was not a nice place to be, and she was using the full force of a heated glare to try and pierce the thought through the man's helmet.

He ignored her as he stood guard outside the entrance to the school's infirmary. She had been told that Glynda would arrive soon and that she should wait with her friend. Weiss wasn't really against that, it was the fact that the soldier _scoffed_ at her when she tried to explain the situation. Scoffed! The nerve! She couldn't blame him, he was a man trained to kill grimm and had probably been doing it for longer than her entire team combined. She probably sounded a bit crazy…

 _Which is going to make explaining this to Goodwitch a bit tricky…_ She thought to herself, pursing her lips. At least Yang was able to sleep now. The jostling from the journey had irritated her ribs and had made it hard for the beleaguered woman to get her rest from her fight. She hadn't really exhausted herself from what the white haired girl could tell, but she probably was in quite a bit of pain. _Which is also going to make this hard to explain away._

If only Glynda had waited! Not that Weiss could really _blame_ the huntress for how things went. It _looked_ bad, but it wasn't. Made her wish that they had brought things to Ozpin's attention and taken the flak for it. It might have changed things. Maybe. _Or would it have just happened sooner?_ Would the Wolf had been forced to run when it was exposed? Impossible to tell now of course, but it set Weiss' jaw all the same.

She opened up her scroll to message the rest of the team but before the display even lit up Ruby and Blake were past the guard and in the room wearing the same worried expression. Blake was the first to speak as Ruby flashed over to Yang's bedside.

"What happened?"

"Lots." Was the short answer Weiss gave, sparing a glance to the unconscious brawler. "She decided to try and wager her duffel bag on out-bludgeoning the Wolf. As you can tell, she lost. Just then Goodwitch showed up with a battalion of soldiers."

Trusting in the wolf enough that Yang wouldn't be hurt too badly Ruby looked up from her sleeping sister and spoke in a surprisingly serious tone. "They're going to kill it if we don't do anything."

"I told it to escape into the woods but… They had an airship." Weiss shook her head.

"The city then." Blake crossed her arms and tapped the toe of her foot against the floor, her restlessness showing through her grimace. "If it's smart it knows the military can't just fly gunships into the city during the time the city is full of people. The breach gave them no choice, but now they have to try and find it on foot."

'Find it' was the euphemism for 'kill it', and the three knew it.

"I'll go." Ruby said, volunteering before anyone even asked it of her. "I'm fastest."

"Go where, Miss Rose?" Glynda said as she walked into the room, brows furrowed and severe gaze landing on Ruby.

"Out." Was all she said, zipping past Glynda before the latter had a chance to stop her. She could hear the woman's stern voice calling down the hall for her to halt but she ignored it. The wolf was in danger and she felt responsible. She might not have been the person to cause the problem but… She found the beowolf, or at least it found her first. She might not have been around it as much recently thanks to other things taking up her time but it was still her responsibility. And right then it was fighting for its life, if it wasn't already dead.

Back in the infirmary the two lucid team members were struggling to summarize the past month and a bit to the headmistress. After speaking to each other and quibbling over a few points Yang rolled over at Glynda's silencing them. Things had been noisy for so long the silence was off-putting, so she woke and decided for the sake of things calming for a moment to explain things quickly.

"Shut up." She groaned, pulling herself upright to the complaint of her muscles. Her half-hearted reprimand sounded weak enough to force her team members to quiet. Focusing on Goodwitch she explained as succinctly as she could. "During the breach Ruby found a really old grimm. It ran away then followed us here. We four have been hanging around with it for the past month-ish. It's not dangerous, I'd let the thing sleep at the foot of my bed if it would fit. Ruby loves the thing like a younger brother even if she doesn't say it. Don't hurt it. Please."

Surprised by the sincerity in the voice of someone she was certain had just been attacked, Glynda pursed her lips before letting out a long sigh. "That is out of my hands now. I'll contact Ozpin and see what he can do."

The huntress had many questions and was quite skeptical, but she was still a teacher. She knew when her students were being honest and when they were hiding something. In that moment, Yang Xiaolong was as honest as she had ever sounded, and that demanded a certain amount of seriousness in response. But now the request had to go through to Ozpin and then to Ironwood. That would complicate things immensely, along with the fact Miss Rose was now out to find the beowolf ahead of his army.

**/**

Ruby had cleared the campus and was looking at the aftermath of the grimm escaping from the plateau. An airship floated a ways above the wreckage of a few flipped armored vehicles and a couple of injured soldiers. They were being loaded onto an ambulance, but as she slowed to see what was wrong they looked only superficially wounded. _Good boy._

She had been sitting in on the beowolf's lessons every once in a while and had started using dog-related terms of endearment when the grimm got things right. It seemed to get the idea, even if it didn't really have a tail to wag or really showed any emotion at all. It still was nice to be positive around the beowolf. It had been such an odd point of contention for the whole team for a long time. Nobody wanted to _say_ they wanted the beowolf around because they _couldn't_. It was just a weird and wrong thing to verbalize. They had just started having real fun with it, even if the wolf wasn't really a 'fun' guy/gal/it, and that made all of them like it more, really. Well maybe not Weiss, but they were going to get there with her.

And as much as they hated to admit it, the Wolf was the first bit of light to hit them since the stuff with Torchwick had started. There were moments of relief, but they didn't make things feel 'better'. They made things 'alright'. They were different feelings and-

"I need to keep moving." Ruby scolded herself, wiping at her eyes with the heel of her hand. She passed by the soldiers without saying a word and approached the edge of the cliff to look out over the city. She could hear distant gunshots below in the general direction of the merchant's district. She'd start her search there since she thought it was fairly unlikely that the army was firing at a completely different grimm who could push through a military blockade.

Not wasting time on the lift down the cliff she took a few steps back before using a semblance-powered leap to thrust herself into the air at startling speed towards the city and the ground. She drew her scythe from her back and angled herself as she fell so that she was drawing near a light post. Whipping out the scythe in an arc she caught the post in the crook of the blade and took a swift 360 to speed herself up further.

Pulling the blade away she hit the ground running and sprinted down the street. The blowing sudden gale sang with the vibrations of the glass in the windows of the buildings along the road. She eventually slowed down a bit as she had to turn a corner, the sound of gunshot and creaking steel audible from quite a few blocks away. She hadn't decided on what to do once she arrived, probably contest the soldiers by putting herself between the grimm and them. It wasn't a _great_ idea, but it was something.

She found the wreckage of a bullhead smack dab in the middle of some stalls with a wing torn in the middle. It looked like Coco's gatling gun had taken offense to the airship from what the tear looked like, as if some giant claw had messily bisected it with an errant scratch. She passed it by since there was no evidence of the wolf, instead focusing on where the sudden influx of people had come from.

Seemingly out of nowhere people shouting started to rush from a mall not far from the market. They were pouring from the entrances, some of them dashing towards the market to get as far away as they could as quickly as they could. They were shouting, but there was no screaming… So was the grimm not there? People were calling out the names of loved ones but didn't seem to be panicking, just frightened. She saw why when a Paladin mech pulled over a rise in the slope of the building before leaping off to ground level, then speeding off to the side with purpose. The people were afraid of the military action then.

Things had quieted down again and the commotion near her made it impossible for Ruby to figure out exactly where to go next to cut off the mech if it _was_ heading after the Wolf. So she'd have to tag along.

Grumbling unhappily but without alternative she made chase.

**/**

Ironwood was living up to his namesake.

He stood in the citadel which was the Atlesian flagship, staring through a holodeck at the last three letters of team RWBY. All of them had requested, demanded, and begged at differing intervals for him to call off his soldiers. He didn't really understand why, they were talking over each other and it wasn't helping their case. The jumble of words eventually lead to him raising a hand and addressing Ozpin, who was just off-screen.

"Can you explain to me what your students want?" He asked, brows knitting together. "They seem to be demanding a withdrawal of my soldiers but that can't possibly be correct."

He saw the three huntresses-to-be rankle but they stepped out of the way with some quiet words from their headmaster. They still looked annoyed, but didn't seem ready to start shouting an obscenity or two. Whatever was going on had them obviously beside themselves, but with _what_ wasn't exactly clear.

"I apologize, they're trying to explain something rather complex and fear there is little time." Ozpin said as he walked into view and rested two of his hands atop the hilt of his cane. "In short, your soldiers need to stand down."

Ironwood rubbed his temple with the tips of gloved fingers before responding. "And why is this?"

"Because they claim it is peaceful, and if it is we need to be careful not to harm it." Oz said. He wasn't as sure as Glynda was about the honesty of the group since he hadn't seen Yang's plea, but he could see in their minds the image of a peaceful beowolf. Or at least an inquisitive one. "That aside your soldiers would be putting themselves in undue risk."

Ironwood was about to speak when a pager at his waist beeped, letting him know there was an urgent message for him. He lifted a finger to ask for a moment of privacy before muting the microphone. Opening a scroll and looking through the field report he was being sent he set his jaw. One image showed the blurred form of a white beowolf. An old grimm. Nearby was a soldier was a readout which showed that the monitored vitals had dropped to the point of no return.

 _Ideals._ He shook his head before accepting the report and pocketing his scroll again. He turned back the image of Ozpin and shook his head, unmuting the device.

"One of our men is dead because of the beast. Whatever 'peaceful' intentions it had, it is a threat to human lives." He crossed his arms. "A dachshund which annoys sheep can be given a chance, a dragon which kills the flock cannot."

**/**

Of course it wouldn't be _easy_ to escape the city, but the grimm hadn't thought that it would be prevented from doing so. True, the humans probably thought it would go into hiding until they thought it was gone, and yes, that was a correct assumption. It wouldn't use that time to attack them though, not that man knew that.

It was currently in a fight between two large mechanical men and a human using rope. It had dashed this way since it seemed less fortified but that turned out to actually be a trap. The woman using the rope could direct it like it was an extension of her hand. It was heavy like lead and was surprisingly strong despite being thin. She used it to restrain the Wolf's movement, forcing it to brawl it out with the two Paladin mechs. Without warning she would tighten the lead and it would drag the beowolf by the chest towards the center of the ever-tightening circle.

It had been avoiding the fact it needed to attack the human for a couple minutes when it finally decided something needed to happen.

The machines were huge, and the grimm had thought they would be slow due to their size. That was a reasonable assumption that had been proven wrong quite swiftly.

It was avoiding strikes from one mech by weaving backwards, the large metal limbs moving swiftly to try and break the wolf's arms and legs. While it was ducking low the other would attack from the side, forcing it to contort, knocking it off balance and pulling it closer and closer to the woman. It hadn't sustained any real damage, just a few glancing blows but it didn't want to see if it could handle five more of the paladins solo.

As it felt the tug on its chest it threw itself backwards towards the huntress, sliding along on its back before turning and righting itself. The lack of spines on its back made such a technique more useful than it normally was for wolves, but despite the uncommon action the huntress was unfazed, instead leaping towards the beast and dodging sideways to avoid the grapple. She tried to use the movement to tangle the beast's feet up but had misjudged the animal's momentum. She caught her foot on the ground and used a dagger to grab the ground, parallel to her body in case it needed to slide a bit to slow the animal down. She had been expecting the beowolf that was only mid sized to have the same weight as a 12 foot tall Ursa Major.

With a short gasp of surprise she was torn from the ground and into the air. Her ropes coiled around the beast and through her aura she tried to soften her fall. The grimm had different ideas, and shocking everyone observing with its intelligence it untangled itself from the binds and hauled the woman from the air with her own chain.

Falling uncontrollably the paladins moved to intercept the huntress. Before she could impact the ground she was tugged off-target, and holding on for dear life she found herself painfully, roughly, but un-injuredly in the paw of the beowolf. It had its thumb and pinky gripping her under the breast while the index and ring fingers held her over her shoulders. Her head was pulled back by the middle finger, forcing her to look straight at a Paladin which was grinding to a halt.

Like a possum she went limp, fearing for her life. The beowolf used the moment of hesitation on the Paladin's part to back up using an arm and two legs. It was awkward to keep the woman in between it and the mechs but that seemed to be its way of getting out of the city… For now.

It could see that while it had been distracted the airships had decided to approach. They were now circling overhead like vultures while it slowly but surely made its way towards the ocean. It couldn't swim, but from the ocean there was the option of going north or south to escape the city. So long as they didn't try and attack it had a plan to leave the woman near one of the walls, maybe just outside the city. Nothing too far off that they would wind up missing her and continue searching into the hills. The Wolf had no intention of turning tail and leaving permanently, there were things it could do here that it wanted to do.

The plan was not without its faults. If a human approached from the side they might take a shot or two when the woman wasn't in their line of sight to see if the umpteenth-hundredth bullet would pierce where others had failed. It was a practice which was gnawing at the Grimm's patience but it held its temper. It was careful not to jostle the human too much or harm her, instead keeping a solid grip like a roller coaster might have. Uncomfortable, unpleasant, but not altogether painful.

Approaching the dock area the decision between North and South had to be made. The army was starting to circle around the beast and while they had been staying back for a while they were starting to creep closer and closer. Soon it wouldn't have anywhere to go without threatening the woman with blood-letting. It had no qualms with that, but it assumed (correctly) that injury to the woman would only escalate things. It didn't know if her being untouched made things better, but her being injured definitely made things worse.

When airships approached from behind the grimm grumbled and ran on three limbs north. It wasn't that fast and the ambling motion was awkward, but it worked for now and the beast wanted to get as far as it could without having to drop the woman. She was no longer feigning death, now risking looking side to side when she had the chance since she was pressed to its chest when it had to move. She was in for a surprise when the grimm leapt from street level to the top of one building to another in order to escape the sight of the flying machines.

It made it a fair distance with nobody chasing, much to its suspicion. It passed between a few buildings before it came to an atrium in the middle of an office complex. It pulled itself under the eaves of the courtyard and peered out from underneath to see a few airships pass by, one with 'SWAT' written on it, a word it didn't know.

Letting go of the woman for a moment since the exit from the courtyard was all the way across the clearing. Grumbling to itself it kept one eye on the soldier who stood in place for a moment before hazarding a glance to the grimm. The beast looked right back at her but did nothing, letting her roll her shoulders before the beast walked forward and grabbed her again, this time heaving her over its shoulder so it had use of both arms. It sensed no malicious emotions emanating from the woman so it decided this was safe enough, and if she escaped it only had another few kilometers to go before it was clear of the city and, hopefully, the military.

It didn't get long to wonder as a clicking noise was all the warning it got before a blast of noise tore through its ears and a blinding light pierced its eyes. For a few seconds it was unable to see or hear aside from an intense ringing which was like nails driven between the eyes. It was unable to do anything when it was tossed from the wall to the ground suddenly while ropes secured over its body, pinning it to the ground.

Murderous intent was thick in the air as It felt the air leave its lungs and weight settle across its joints and back. Unable to move it struggled blind and deaf but with an acute knowledge that it was in a life-or-death situation without being able to move.

As its eyes finally adapted it tilted its head to see a black haired man with a scythe at his side standing on his shoulders, eyes distant and brows knit. His scythe was similar to Red's but much thinner, making it seem even more ominous. It felt sharp in the air even without it even touching the beast's body, armored or not. Struggling against its bonds it flared its nostrils and struggled to find purchase against the ground when it couldn't even plant its feet or hands.

"End of the line." The scythe-wielding man said, lowering the blade so it hooked under the beowolf's neck.

"Sir, if I may." The woman said, standing and rubbing her ears. "The beowolf-"

"We already know." The man said, leaving the blade in place but not threatening decapitation. "Ozpin sent us since Ironwood was being headstrong as usual." He looked from the grimm to the black-haired woman. "Raven."

The woman paused before crossing her arms and staring back at her brother. Even with the soldier's equipment on she couldn't so easily distort the truth for family... She couldn't say she was surprised. He'd have questions for her, but they'd need to wait. She wasn't particularly interested in staying around to answer the questions Qrow would have for her.

The grimm didn't know what was going on but was quite aware of the thin edge which was eating its way slowly but surely through the thick armor under its throat. It had encountered sharp blades and incredible force but the scythe was so thin that it parted the beowolf's armor like it was nothing. It was struggling against its binds, pulling its head backwards so that it could avoid as much of the blade as possible… But it wasn't going to be enough if he didn't-

The man stopped talking with the woman and leaned down to the Grimm's ear, speaking with a quiet but serious tone. "Ozpin tells me you know Ruby and Yang?" The rhetorical question was tensely answered by the slight nod the grimm gave against the pressure of the blade. "Good, you're smart. They're going to get into massive trouble with the council thanks to you and you might get executed anyways. You're lucky their dad isn't here, he'd personally roast you for the trouble."

Stepping off of the beast he knelt down to look into its eyes. The same undefined red eyes of all grim looked back at him, but there was some type of expression being impressed upon him which he couldn't really place. The beast was smart enough to take a hostage, escape instead of fight, understand some of what he said. For once he felt more on James' side than Ozpin's but he had trust in his nieces. If there was something good here they might be right. _Might._

Flipping his scythe between two fingers it collapsed down into what looked like a bulky fan and holstering it. Drawing his scroll he raised it to take a picture of the prone beowolf to send to Ruby since she was the one out and searching for it. Right as he clicked to take the photo he heard the telltale shriek of a particular someone as they fell from the roof of the building down to ground level. He was so surprised he nearly drew his scythe, only to turn and see Ruby landing on the ground a couple feet away from the beowolf. She paid no attention to her uncle, her eyes instead locked onto the wolf.

"Ruby? Why are you-?"

The brunette ignored the question and instead knelt down and hugged the beowolf's head tightly. Her shoulders shook slightly, forcing Qrow to bite his tongue. He remained silent as Ruby quietly chastised the beowolf, petting its armor like it were a large puppy. _Just what is going on?_ He wondered, stepping away to leave the two some privacy and motioning for the officers to unbind the beast.

 _Tai is going to have kittens…_ He thought as he sent a message to Ozpin to let the headmaster know that they had the grimm in hand and would be returning to Beacon shortly. Ironwood's forces would need to be dodged since they wouldn't be distracted long, but that wouldn't be too difficult. They wouldn't think to search one of the kingdom's SWAT bullheads. The favors that he needed to pull, however…

Looking back to Ruby embracing the beowolf he sighed. _Fuck.  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who never saw this on fanfiction.net, this chapter has been rewritten more than a few times with varying amounts of success.


	15. The Youth, The Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The headmasters are given a choice in how to solve their Grimm problem. Ozpin and James butt heads.

_When was the last time we were all seated like this?_ Qrow thought to himself as he looked around the room. He, along with Ozpin, Glynda, Ironwood and Taiyang were inside the Beacon Academy staff lounge. There were some notable exceptions, Summer and _her_ respectively, but this was still the closest the eight of them had come to being in the same room in nearly a decade.

He wished it was under better circumstances. Seated backwards on a simple chair he looked to each of those present and saw emotions ranging from thoughtfulness to betrayal. A far cry from their school years but that was what time had done to them. It drew even the closest-knit of friends apart in the end. Not that they had made any attempt to remain in contact after they had split up. Eight became four, four became two. Now only five of them were left to argue over the fate of four silly, _silly_ , kids.

"So what now?" He asked, running a hand along his head to slick his hair back. The awful question, because it had no answer.

**/**

In an empty gymnasium a similarly uncertain reunion was occurring.

Port, Oobleck and a few more teachers were standing guard inside the building while Ruby and the Wolf reunited with the rest of the team. They had been posted as a cautionary force in case the wolf tried something and were most certainly unhappy with it overall. Oobleck, however, was incredibly interested, shifting his glasses every few seconds to inspect each minute detail of the exchange. It was well lit in the room so they all had a clear view of the beast as it sat on its haunches.

_Amazing. Body strongly resembles a beowolf in proportions but lacks extraneous back protrusions of the elder members of species. White armor is smooth, not angular, does not catch light despite being white. Thin, so it seems, pliant. A beast with considerable speed and defensive capabilities. No protruding claws, humanoid hands, shoulders seem human. Remarkable, it evolved past the mobility restrictions of the race. A veritable scout, but as strong as a Paladin. An apex of the race no doubt!_

The man was excited to say the least. He was a man of history, it was in all respects his forté even as a huntsman, but he was still a man with a thirst for all knowledge. In front of him, within a dozen paces, was an example of a species which had for centuries beat their way through the strongest fortifications of man. A single human could lay dozens down with the proper training but the tenacity of a beowolf pack meant danger and death regardless. But here… One of those same beowolves was standing stock still like a statue without so much as a glare. It could harm so much but it _wasn't_. It _wasn't_ out there killing people. What made it different? Age?

"Can you believe this?" Port huffed, shuffling a bit sideways to be closer to his coworker. His narrowed eyes were more focused on Ruby who was prodding at the Grimm's armor. "They treat it like an oversized pup!"

"They do." Oobleck agreed absentmindedly, not realizing that Port was being critical. "A remarkable feat to be sure. None of the species has been held in any form of restraint such as this without violent outburst. No record of a human interaction with the species aside from violence since the dawn of time. A truly magnificent event is in front of us. Monumental. Curious."

"There is only one thing 'monumental' about this occasion." Port grumbled as he crossed his arms over his chest, nose scrunching up and moustache flapping. "The fact that we are _guarding_ it as opposed to killing it and mounting it on a wall as trophy. Every Huntsman this side of the great wall is shamed by the fact we let a _murderer_ sit idly while good men lay rotting."

Pulled out of his near-theological analysis Oobleck frowned and glanced to Port. "You believe this to be meaningless?"

"Pointless." The rotund man corrected. "Shameful."

Taking a long drink from his flask Oobleck made a 'hmph' noise. "We'll see. I don't disagree that there is a particular weight for letting it be free, if it comes to be free, but if it saves eight lives does it make up for the loss of three?" Taking another long drink he pushed back the grim emotions pulling at the back of his mind. "We give children their best chance before pushing them into the life of a Huntsman. If this saves team RWBY from fate then three soldiers died for first real chance humanity has had in recent memory."

**/**

"Sit still…" Ruby asked the beowolf quietly as she pulled another bullet out of the beast's arm. It had been shot an innumerable amount of times and had been scratching ineffectively at the rounds still lodged in its armor. The armor wasn't hard enough to force the bullets to get deflected when they struck at an angle, just get stuck. Uncomfortable with the extraction process it silently grumbled as it was prodded but accepted the assistance. Mostly the problem was being surrounded by huntsmen.

There were quite a few things wrong with the situation from its perspective. First, it was surrounded by murderous intent. Seven huntsmen were guarding windows and doorways and six of those were varyingly distrustful and angry, hateful in some cases. The beast was hardly offended, it was more concerned that the humans might attempt something when it was outnumbered and unable to move. The fact that these seven were probably the shepherds of the children at the school meant that they were an even greater threat. How much of a threat it didn't know, but enough that it was on edge. It was pleased that Red was doing what she was because that gave it some sort of buffer.

A bullet from the bullhead it had downed did make it growl audibly when the huntress-in-training pulled it from the outside of its elbow. It glared at her and she just shrugged sheepishly, to which it only huffed.

Black, who had been talking quietly with White and Yellow said something directed to the Grimm and it glanced over. She was holding up the malformed shape of metal that had been lodged in its shoulder.

"Bullet." She said. The tone was nothing special to the normal ear but it could tell this was a word the faunus wanted it to learn. After it nodded she drew out her weapon and left the blade in its sheath. It watched curiously as she pressed down on something and a clicking noise could be heard before a compartment in the hilt popped out. Extracting it she fiddled with the end before holding up a small metal thing which was roughly cylindrical. "Bullet."

It nodded and she tossed it under hand to the beast. Looking at it the wolf lifted the spent round before a weight on its arm forced it to transfer both the spent and untouched bullets to its right hand. Without looking it knew Red wanted to continue with her operation and let her do so. Of the four she was the one who 'stuck' more often and had learned that prodding and poking was the punishment for not allowing it.

**/**

"Should we feel guilty?" Yang asked as she watched her sister and partner awkwardly try and make the Wolf feel comfortable in present company. She was pretty sure that she would feel uncomfortable in a room filled with Grimm, and by the beowolf's posture it looked just as displeased. She knew that she hadn't meant to cause the events of the day but when it came down to it, she was the one who wanted to fistfight a beowolf. _What was I thinking?_ Her eyes were downward as her fists clenched, jaw set.

Weiss, who was the closest and the one to whom the question was really directed breathed deeply in through her nose. She thought for a moment before letting it go through her mouth. " _You_ decided that the best course of action on a Thursday evening was to pack up a bag and try and bribe a wild animal to fight you. Without considering the fact that it could misunderstand and attack you, or me, or _anyone_ for that matter, you threw the gauntlet. You got your ass _kicked_ and made enough noise that Glynda found us. So yeah, this is on you."

A flare of anger in Yang's chest was quickly doused by the weight of shame.

" _But_." The heiress continued. "I should have done more to stop you." She laced her fingers together and distractedly picked at the underside of her nails to remove invisible grit. " _I_ got carried away. I, admittedly, wanted to see what the rest of my team was so interested in and that blinded me to the possible… problems." She pulled her hands apart and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not your partner, but I'm your teammate, and I should have had thought things through more clearly. So I'm guilty too, and I'm sorry."

The two stood in silence for a moment, both feeling responsibility press on their chest.

"Sorry." Yang mumbled.

"Yeah." Weiss whispered.

The brawler watched Blake and Ruby speak quietly to the grimm for a little while before noticing the irregular ridges that rounds had made in the beast's chest and other arm. The damage was obvious, even from her oblique angle. Walking forwards she took to the beast's other arm and started to pry the bullets from the carapace. She did so carefully, using only the tips of her fingers and trying to keep from applying pressure to the top of the metal. It wasn't that difficult, like pulling burrs from Zwei when he ran into thistles during the fall. The grimm looked down at her for a moment before looking back to Blake and dropping its arm lower down.

Silently happy that the Wolf wasn't pushing her away she pulled out a round and found that it had pierced all the way through. When she removed it the red on the end of the round immediately burned off and flecked into the air. Looking at the wound itself the angry red which was inside all grimm was glowing bright. It was a fairly ominous color, _But at least it isn't bleeding_ , she thought to herself. She continued and pretended to ignore the slowly growing pile of lead at her feet. Every once in a while when she removed a piece of metal the beast would tense, grumble or silently shake, then relax again. After a minute Weiss approached and started on the beast's side. Moments later Blake started pulling them from the chest of the grimm.

There were four of them, but it was still a sizeable task. By the time the arms, chest and lower back were done their fingers were stiff and Blake's nails were leaking blood at the edges. They took a small break and Ruby played some music from her scroll in order to fill the quiet. It had been a long time but they still hadn't been summoned by the headmaster, a slightly unnerving fact. They could hear the soft snoring of one or two teachers who had fallen asleep themselves. While Blake looked out the windows to the stars she saw a flash of orange hair. Well, _thought_ she did, she was tired so it might have been nothing.

 _Nope, that's definitely…_ Walking towards one of the windows she saw the peering eyes of team JNPR in the corner of one of the panes. Nora, Jaune, Ren and Pyrrha were all looking through into the dark of the room. Ren caught sight of her and had an expression which could only be described as a combination of apologetic and uncomfortable. He wasn't saying anything but Jaune and Nora were obviously babbling amongst themselves none-to-quietly. _Well at least they're as bad as we are at being sneaky._

Moments later and Pyrrha noticed, who prodded those below her. Suddenly three sheepish looks and the grin of Nora were falling out of view as Blake could only imagine was Nora slipping and taking the rest with her. There was a quiet thud and she saw Oobleck step outside.

A minute later and team JNPR was standing with team RWBY and facing the Beowolf. Jaune was in front, flanked by Pyrrha who looked ready to toss the team leader behind her in case the Wolf did anything suspicious. Jaune for his part didn't seem adverse to such a plan as he was smiling like he was looking a monster in the eye. Which he was. Nora was excited to the surprise of no one.

"So you don't know what Ozpin wants?" Pyrrha asked, her arms crossed.

"Or what Ironwood wants." Yang sighed. "Uncle Qrow called us together and told us to wait. He said something about convincing 'the General' so that has to be him."

"Do they know that we knew as well?" Nora asked, more inquisitively than anything. "Because if they do they are _sooo_ going to lock us in here with you and if they do we won't be able to go to class not that _I_ pay attention and then we'll get behind and that's why I got us-"

 _If they didn't, they do now._ All present thought as the Warhammer-wielding woman continued to babble on.

"And what is it _doing_?"

That caught Ruby's attention and she looked back at the beowolf. She didn't know either at first and the beowolf looked surprised. It was on all fours 'standing' when before it had been seated on its haunches. Shaking its head it pulled itself back onto its rear and took a few audible breaths. Ruby's brow creased in worry but though the grimm seemed to notice it didn't provide any explanation, not that it really could.

"It looked a bit… Woozy." Jaune said, making a face. "Which is weird because grimm don't eat anything."

"Aside from people." Pyrrha said a bit too seriously for Ruby's liking, but Yang made a point of rolling her eyes to prevent any petty squabbling from beginning. She placed her hands on her hips and stared with meaning at the gladiator who got the hint and switched subjects. "Fine. As long as we don't get dragged into whatever happens."

**/**

"I categorically refuse." Ironwood said finally, flask creaking under his grip as he glared daggers at Qrow. "I have explained a dozen times by now, there is no element within me that can allow the Grimm to go free. It goes against my basic sense of honor and any reasonable sense I still have that you all seem to be lacking!"

He stood from his seat and looked each of those present in the eyes. "Joan Feele, Corporal, Leon Hathford, Private second class, and Johan Bodendorfer, Private second class. The three are currently en-route to Atlas in draped caskets. You can spew rhetoric about a 'new age' but the only reality in front of _me_ is that there are dead."

Glynda had to restrain the urge to roll her eyes at the hard-headedness but she acknowledged what James was saying. The beowolf had killed in its attempt to escape, and it might do the same when it was cornered elsewhere. Then it might be civilians and not soldiers who fall into the crossfire, and she saw that as worse by a considerable range.

"I think we should take a break." Ozpin said once the silence in the room had become a mote too passionate. The rest got his hint and left, albeit reluctantly, leaving the headmasters in the same room. James had a suspicious look on his face but sat down on the couch again, keeping a careful eye on Ozpin.

For his part the headmaster of Beacon was silent, taking a long drink from his mug before holding the warm cup between his hands.

"If you expect that I can believe your judgement in regards to the wolf then you are mistaken Oz." The general sighed, tired from the night's arguing. "You talk about possibilities like you can see them but everyone else can only see the evidence we're faced with."

"What if you didn't need to trust me? What if you only needed to trust Ruby Rose?" The white-haired man asked as he carefully watched James' reaction over the rim of the cup. Understandably, the general's expression hardened again, but was cut off before he could say a word. "This isn't an attempt to weasel out of the Grimm's eventual death, it's instead a chance for the students."

Already displeased with the offer as it made no sense, but unwilling to argue just yet, he motioned for Ozpin to continue.

"Ruby Rose was willing to search through the entire kingdom to try and find the Beowolf when she feared for its safety. Yang Xiaolong had enough faith in its intelligence that she was willing to wrestle with it in a game. Blake Belladonna has been for the past week or so teaching it human language." Ozpin stated the three points imploringly. "Weiss Schnee, despite being the probable snitch of the group, has remained silent despite her strong opinions."

Setting his glass down Oz continued. "Their skills individually are in no way comparable to a second year but their synergy is quite remarkable. If they're willing to make a sacrifice in time, they may very well be able to keep the Wolf and satisfy your requests. They _trust_ this animal implicitly. I do not know why but I'm willing to have enough faith in my students to let them make such a critical decision on their own. If they are willing, if they _believe,_ even you have to admit that they can use a Grimm's help once they become members in our war."

**/**

"You're all present. Good." Glynda said as she and the rest of the deliberators entered the room. At her sides were James and Ozpin, the former's eyes drilling into the Beowolf, the latter with an unreadable expression. Following behind was Qrow, stepping through the doorway and distracted by something behind him. The huntress continued, "We have something to discuss with you all, teams RWBY _and_ JNPR."

"Before that!" Someone shouted as a man with longish yellow hair dashed through the front door and slid between Glynda and Ozpin. His violet eyes connected with Ruby's and Yang's like laser sights and the pair paled noticeably. Ruby barely managed to say "dad" before she and Yang were caught in a maelstrom of pointed questions and exasperation. By the time he was done both of them were looking at the ground and apologizing softly.

The beowolf watched with interest as the human continued his speech. It didn't exactly understand everything that the man was saying, or really much of it at all, but the human was concerned. He was slightly angry but fear was the more prominent odor. In fact as the wolf looked to the arriving humans there was guilt in their air. All of them exuded it but the density varied considerably. The yellow-haired man was weighed by it, as was Qrow, but the largest portion was held by the white haired man and blonde woman that had chased it from the mountain before.

Guilt. Like a human that saw its partner dying a preventable death. The grimm shifted its posture slightly in concern. There was no murderous intent so there was no direct threat but it had been attacked by three humans in the room already. Grumbling softly it took a step towards team RWBY, the closest thing it had to allies since the pack had been killed. It turned out that was the least appropriate action since the man standing near the girls whirled to face it with a sudden spark of an emotion the grimm couldn't place. Dark certainty? It didn't have long to determine it before Yang grabbed the man by his shoulder and said something quickly. The man paused and the emotion faded.

The Wolf refrained from approaching until Ruby motioned for it. Emotions flared slightly again but it didn't fear for its life when it stood in the middle of the two teams. RWBY on the right with Red nearest and team JNPR on the left with Nora being the closest. The people on the left were much more nervous than those on the right, but there was an overwhelming amount of curiosity coming from the orange-haired girl. The grimm could feel her eyes on its head and she seemed content to ignore the humans in front. The beast felt like attempting to get an explanation from the woman but it was improbable that she would understand that the tilted head was a query.

Another mix of emotions was present and its gaze shifted to a man who stood taller than the rest. He wore white and had dark gray hair, thus instantly being dubbed 'Gray' by the creature. What was far more interesting than that was his air. His eyes were trained onto the beowolf like a hunter's sights and though the others showed apprehension this man only had… What? The Grimm was unable to place any emotion coming off of him. There was no loss, no anger, no disgust. It was neutral. Unsettlingly so.

"A decision had to be made about what to do about your Beowolf." Ozpin said, his tiredness showing through his voice. "Ironwood is adamant that it be destroyed since he believes it to be responsible for the deaths of three men and women under his command."

A long pause filled the air with either shock, disgust or despair depending on what the grimm focused on. Whatever was said was definitely not good, and that made it stiffen slightly.

"If you would hold your comments until the end, please." Ozpin implored Weiss who looked like she was about to burst into a rant of some sort. "We couldn't convince him otherwise so we were forced to promise him something which was ultimately the same. The Wolf will become a permanent attaché in team RWBY."

Confusion, surprise, incredulity. The wolf looked to the humans near it and saw the different emotions plainly on their faces. A bit of outrage was in the distance among the shepherds but that was mostly suppressed by the other emotions.

"Y-you mean?" Ruby spluttered a bit as she shook her head as if to clear the conclusion. "It's R-W-W-B-Y?"

The headmaster raised a hand to show he wasn't done yet. The grimm could sense the increasing weight of guilt in the air from the humans in front of it and was confused itself now. The emotions of the humans conflicted with Red, White, Black and Yellow. It didn't seem a good sign at all. Were they hiding something from the others?

"Just what do you mean by that?" Blake asked, taking a step forwards, ignoring Ozpin's request to keep quiet for the time being. "There's no way the other students would accept a beowolf in their midst. It's impossible for the wolf to be part of our team."

"As a first year, no." Qrow said, speaking up. "You would be spending too much time on campus for it to be reasonable. The chance of a civilian from Vale reporting you to local authorities would also be too high. Instead you would be going to be put into second year's new term starting after the festival. It would be dangerous to skip that many months of training but would give you access to the away missions which the second years have. As for the status of the Grimm it would be a companion beast as dogs are for huntsmen."

The blonde woman who had driven the Wolf away took that moment to warn them. "This would be a massive undertaking even with your level of promise. Your lives were already endangered when you joined the academy and pursuing this goal will be far more perilous than any challenge you have faced. Understand that if you wish to save the beast it would come at the expense of endangering your own lives."

"We are still deliberating on who would be mentoring you for the change from one year to another, but the arrangements will need to be done shortly. You have three weeks until you make your decision, I recommend you think long and hard about what you are going to do." Ozpin took a deep breath and looked the Beowolf straight in the eyes. "Your choice may have unforeseeable consequences."

"And… Uh… What about us?" Jaune asked. "Do we have to go into second year as well?"

"That would be your choice." Glynda answered. "If you do then you are putting yourself in the same position as team RWBY and possibly harm yourself in the process. There are multi-team missions, however, and you eight have shown inter-team synergy from the beginning. Regardless of your choice you will be asked to remain silent on the topic of the beowolf."

"I beg you think very carefully about whether or not this beast is worth saving." James said as he slipped his hand into the breast of his coat. Her brow creased slightly and he made a fist under the fabric before pulling it back out, fingers moving as if opening a clasp. It looked like a habitual movement and there was a measure of displeasure in his air. "Ozpin believes that your… _Companion_ has potential. He thinks that even with missing a year of your studies." Bringing his hands behind him he clasped them, his stance becoming more rigid. "I might be a fool for believing him in the face of what the beowolf has done, but you don't need to make the same mistake."

Finally the shell around the man's mind cracked and the Beowolf was not ready. The others had something it would call 'fear'. Not of the Wolf itself, it was of something in the future, and that fear was tinged with strong guilt. This man, this Gray was currently emanating the same guilt but instead of it being of some hazy future it was some sort of present disgust. Words fail to describe the sensation and the Grimm's normally stellar control was tested.

For the first time in a long while the grimm was tempted. It curled its claws into the ground as it tried to ignore the nauseating concoction surrounding it. Suddenly there were currents of anger, hurt, betrayal, and fear in its close proximity, their normally dulled potency now in full effect. It felt like its 'blood' was being pulled through the air and towards the humans and faunus. It was the most curiously antagonizing sensation that it had experienced. It remembered a similar experience from the past but it was hard to remember. Looking up from the ground it caught sight of one of the shepherd's weapons and logic reeled the temptation in. It had experienced the blade of the scythe within recent memory and that was enough to cool irrationality.

The deeper wounds still burned but they cooled slightly as time went on. A minute later and the humans were still speaking, about what it was too distracted to guess. Soon enough they calmed and the burning stopped which pulled a sigh of relief from its mouth. Red looked at it from the side and tugged at its arm in question. Unable to describe the sensation and not wanting to it only huffed.

"What's wrong?" Blake asked Ruby, who shrugged.

"It still isn't feeling well?" She guessed, her words rising in intonation as she again glanced at the Grimm. "The bullets might have done something…"

"It will be moved off of the plateau and into the Forever Falls for the evening around the old ruins as there are no missions set there tomorrow. From there it will be moved deeper into the range where the Crimson Mjoll range begins. There it will be far enough away that it will pose no threat to the students or the kingdom." James explained, the other Huntsmen looking at him as if he was making this up on the spot, which he was. "If you know where that is, you know that it would be impossible for a Grimm to escape observation and sneak back to the academy grounds."

"If you do not, it will be part of your extended geography lessons, which I am sure you would be conscious for, correct?" Glynda asked the eight students plus-one.

It was her attempt at a joke, and they could tell, but the atmosphere was a bit too tense for anyone to chuckle. While the grimm had been suffering silently they had listened to the evidence which pointed to it being responsible for a bullhead crash. It was quite simple really, the operator had been in contact with Control relaying the duel between the Wolf, the Paladins, and the Huntress. Suddenly they lost power to one of their propellers and the vessel went down in a heap a few blocks away.

Ironwood gave the play-by-play with a stony gaze. After telling of the bullhead he continued by telling what his operatives had seen of the Beowolf taking a 'woman' hostage. He didn't tell them who that person was though Qrow was tempted to do so, even if it was only Yang in private.

"Wait, what?" Yang interjected after the general said something suspicious. "You said that the soldiers tried to 'take her back'. Is that why the Wolf has sniper rifle rounds in its back?"

"Only light rounds were used." Qrow said. A few of his SWAT members had been sent as sharpshooters to try and pin the Grimm down. "

Ruby's face twisted in confusion before she picked up one of the pieces of lead up from the ground and held it behind her back. The rest of those present looked at her with confusion and she just smiled awkwardly, waving the interest off.

It was late and the rest of the debrief could wait, so it was only minutes later that the team members were sent off to their dorms under oaths of silence and the Beowolf was directed to a bullhead that would be taking it to the steepest mountain range on the continent.

**/**

_Why?_ Ruby Rose thought as she held up the deformed piece of lead that she had picked up from the floor of the gym. It was barely recognizable as a bullet, but it was definitely a high caliber. She was holding a .50 BMG round, the same used in Crescent Rose. The 'tail' end was bloomed out like a metal flower which would dig into the armor of an armored target. The stress fractures would be shattered by a follow up charge which would detonate the explosive in the tip of the bullet.

It was an anti-vehicle round, the type used to incapacitate Bullheads.


	16. Fray

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Beowolf nurses it's wounds, Others work for truth.

**Forever Falls.**

Leaning back against the smooth marble of the pillar the **"wolf"** took deep breaths.

The thing looked out up at the **"stars"** and the **"moon"**. The **"circle"** barely stood out against the **"black" "sky"** thanks to the **"cloud"** cover. It hung over the school from the beast's perspective acting like a distant lighthouse. Over there, there was something. Allies.

" **Ruby."**

" **Weiss."**

" **Blake."**

" **Yang."**

As the beowolf cast its eyes around its muzzle shifted and nostrils flared. Blowing air gently it thought of the words it had learned. It would be a gross overstatement to call the entire process 'thinking' so much as practicing the elements of it. Definitely an alien process, but it was doing quite well despite that.

Some things it needed to do sooner than later defined its vocabulary. It needed to shed part or all of its armor and then recast it. Somewhere in the distant past it has first crafted the plates which spread over its chest and back. It was a particularly uncomfortable experience, like nails growing under the skin and then pushing through all at once. There was no pain… Or was there? Many years had passed since then so the memory may have had a few holes.

Patches had used the few hours since it had arrived at the ruins to grow over the holes made by the bullets. They were sticking, but were made of completely different stuff than the main carapace. The majority of the armor had started to lose its malleability and was seizing. As the beast moved cracks developed making a thin spiderweb between the patches. It knew just from the grating sensation on its back that it would need to do something sooner than later.

Looking around the low walls that made up the ruins it shifted to a darker and more secluded area. The huntsmen were still watching it from afar and while that normally just made it uncomfortable now it felt vulnerable. The beast knew its own physical strength to be excellent, but feared that it was lame. If the armor was fully compromised or, worse still, it was unable to move there would be little struggle if it was attacked.

Finding a dark spot it sighed before gripping its right forearm with its left hand.

" **Pain."**

**/**

**Three days later.**

**/**

"Ah, girls, I've been expecting you." The prof said, opening the door to his lecture room. Sliding the door open he let the four enter before shutting the door again. The five took seats at the front of the room, the professor pulling a chair out from one of the desks and sitting on it backwards, looking at the collection of four. "I've been informed that you all have a fairly unique situation and need a summary of what's what in second year."

Blake shifted in her seat, uncomfortable. "The texts were delivered to us this morning but… There's a considerable amount of content. Your class… Is about half of it."

"You'd think you wouldn't need to read about what you learn as a normal huntress…" Weiss grumbled under her breath, earning a nod from Yang and a quirked brow from the man. The heiress looked a bit sheepish before continuing. "But I'm sure it's important!"

The instructor laughed heartily before leaning back a bit. "Well, let me introduce myself first of all." The black haired man had a thin beard that reached from above the ears and traced his jawline before reaching a barcode tattoo. The ink ran from the edge of the chin up to the edge of his lip, the bars fairly uniform in width but varying in length. His skin was about the same tone as Fox's, Ruby noticed. Definitely not related though as the prof had a much more square jaw. "My name is Deio Arkerhiel, most people call me Doc. D since my last name is a bit hard to pronounce."

"So…" Deio said, lifting a hand with fingers spread. "I'll be honest with you," he looked to Ruby, Weiss, Yang, and black in turn. "applied theory is a huge topic space. Depending on how you count it there are between three and five subjects that are covered in the first two semesters. History and Synergetic theory are the majority but there's geography and some sociology involved…" He trailed off.

" _Why_ are they all in the same course?" Yang asked, incredulous. "We already have those courses, why would we need to take them twice?"

"Tradition more than anything." He said, the corner of his lips curling up. "Applied Theory is supposed to be where the subjects meet and interact more fully. It usually covers the subjects in less depth but asks you to look at events or occurrences with a critical eye. The theory of learning the theory – which does make it sound even more obtuse than it is—is that it helps unify the other studies."

"Does it work?"

Seeing the man kind of shrug Ruby giggled. "That… Isn't very convincing."

"Some people do better with it than others. It's not a very difficult course and the minimum attendance along with the required assignments aren't very heavy." He stood and walked to his desk, opened a drawer and pulled out a thick stack of paper. Pulling the first dozen pages or so up and off he walked back and held it up for them to see. "What you _need_ to know for the next semester. I have a digital copy I can send you so you don't need to lug this around."

Handing it to Blake, who seemed the most interested in the words, he continued. "The texts are probably still worth a look but in the interest of time those 60 pages are all you need to cover." Reaching over to his table he picked up a scrap of paper, scribbling on the front. "My office hours aren't on the sheet so I'll give you this… I'm still on rotation for the local enforcement so I'm not always available by mail, but if its outside my hours it is worth taking a stab."

"Thanks Doc. D!" Ruby said cheerfully, standing up. She hesitated in leaving as the rest of her team started to exit. "Uhm. What part of enforcement are you on?"

"Ah, I lead one of one of the SWAT detachments. The one for outside Vale city proper, Qrow Branwen leads the one for the city itself." He shifted slightly on his feet to glance out one of the windows. "It's not very often we get called, but when we are it's because some kids decided to poke around Mountain Glenn and have attracted the attention of the Goliaths. It's good side work for a Huntsman." He pulled his wallet out of a back pocket on his slacks and showed her his ID and badge, the two affixed to the front of the leather.

Ruby opened her mouth and paused for a moment. She would normally be genuinely interested in the armory of Vale, and she knew she would sound excited, but she didn't want to sound too excited. If she was then they might be a bit suspicious, and she didn't want to be suspicious.

_But if I wasn't then they'd suspect something. I'm not a weapon nut but it's not exactly a secret that I am a bit excited by-_

"Ruby, what are you doing?" Yang called from the doorway as her younger sister stood there in front of the prof, a puzzled look on her fact which could be best described as 'eyebrows fighting for dominance'. "We don't have long to get lunch before heading to Ozpin's office. You can ask him about guns later!"

"Eh? Yeah." Ruby said, slightly defeated as she stepped away from the prof and walked back to her teammates. Clenching her teeth slightly she relaxed when she resolved to ask the man later after coming back under the pretense of needing help with the work. She didn't want to deceive her team, and she wasn't, but she needed to find something out for herself.

**/**

_We're divided?_ Jaune thought as he looked between his teammates. He and Pyrrha were seated on one side of a booth while Nora and Ren sat on the other side. The four had barely touched their food (Nora notwithstanding, who was plowing through her meal of veal with zeal), each of them thinking about the announcement that their best friends had made over breakfast.

They were actually going to do it.

Well, not JNPR, but Ruby and the rest had made it clear that they were going to be taking their chances and going into second year. Jaune had been trying to decide whether or not it was actually a surprising development or not. 3 days after they had been given the ultimatum about the Grimm's fate team JNPR had received a message in their joint inbox saying, effectively, 'we're doing it, you had better come-with'.

That message had started a short but heated argument in the dorm room which they had decided could wait until later. The breakdown was basically that Jaune was uncertain, Pyrrha was wholly against, and Nora was critical of leaving their friends alone.

It was quite a sight to see Nora getting riled up, even more so while combating Pyrrha in a war of wills. When the room got too cold Ren stepped in, but until then it had been a bit touch-and-go.

Taking a long sip from his soda he decided that as team leader he should start the discussion and try to keep it on track. He looked across the table to Ren, who caught the gaze and nodded slightly to show his support. Taking a deep breath the blonde made his opening move.

"So…" He began, taking his glass into his hands and rotating it so that the ice cubes sat in place while the rim moved. " _I_ think that the first question we need to answer is whether or not…" Jaune's jaw set before he made a face. "The general is right."

Nora and Pyrrha shared a glance before nodding for Jaune to continue. Not really having a follow up Jaune was forced to leave an awkward momentary pause. He was rarely gripped with envy for the drama that team RWBY has suffered through but he had to admit that it has given them some strengths they, and more specifically he, didn't have. The problems of peace, he almost chuckled to himself.

"Well," he nodded to Pyrrha, "you are worried about what the Grimm might do-"

When an increasing amount of murmuring around the students reached their ears they tensed slightly. Out of the corner of their eyes they could see they critical glances being tossed their way by the other patrons. One or two uttered things under their breath with obvious malice.

Shifting slightly in their seats they remained silent for a few minutes while they waited for the icy atmosphere to thaw. They had thought that there would be some tension after the Grimm rampaged through the streets, but not this sort of hostility. The Beowolf had hardly caused any damage, but it had caused some serious doubt in the populace around whether or not their institutions could protect them. For all they knew a single rogue Beowolf was able to pierce through the entire Kingdom mostly unopposed.

The 'net and news was filled with stories and theories of how it all came to pass… Even so, Jaune hadn't seen anything _hostile_. Didn't they trust the hunstmen?

When the noise there returned to normal Jaune continued, making sure to avoid the word 'grimm'.

"Pyrrha, you are worried that _it_ might be dangerous, and because of that you doubt that what our friends are doing makes any sense, right?"

The Gladiator curled her lips, making it clear that she thought that was an over-simplification. She nodded anyways.

"And Nora, you think we should trust our friends' judgement since they're our friends?"

A pleased nod from the other teammate. Pyrrha for her part remained silent even though she looked like she wanted to argue. Jaune looked at her and she sighed. "Alright, we'll argue with them. I'm sorry for being a _bit_ obtuse, Nora."

"Apology accepted."

**/**

" _Ugh._ " Emerald Sustrai said as she took a step back from Mercury. The man was covered in soot, black dust coating his upper shoulders and marking his grimacing face. "The hell have you been? Cinder has been trying to contact you for half an hour."

"Tell it to the thugs that broke into the East Side." Mercury countered as he pulled off his jacket and tossed it onto the old chair that sat behind the executive desk. They had a temporary shelter in an old Office Building outside the agriculture district for their more covert operations, and were making quite a bit of use of it in the recent days. "I was trying to get in contact with some of those guys Adam said were going to be 'useful'. Someone crashed the meeting place and scared them off."

Emerald chucked and Mercury turned to glare at her, his own wounded ego riling at the ridicule. The woman shrugged off the daggers and shrugged, a haughty look in her eyes. "Since Cinder needs a report you can wait here for her. I'll see if I can shake some information out of Junior… He's been a bit too _quiet_ recently."

"As if he knows anything." He grumbled, pulling his scroll out from the rear pockets of his pants and selecting Cinder's name from the contacts. It was black-framed, obviously different from the ones handed out to the students, and held all the contacts the trio needed for their 'extracurricular activities'. "I'm back 'home'."

A short message was received as a reply, and he grumbled again. Looking up he saw that Sustrai had already left.

She walked the long way to the bus stop that lead into the city proper, not worried about the time. The Club was never open during the day, and more often than not when the Club wasn't open Junior was unavailable. Only after the evening crept across the sky and turned day to night did the doors fully open. If she was lucky, however, she would walk in right before the public started wandering in.

It was a short ride into the central square and then another stint on foot to the transit exchange. She only got off the bus before the exchange because she wanted to walk alongside the reconstruction going on downtown. The Trio had been preoccupied when the grimm had been cutting its way across the city but most definitely had seen the results. It was easy to see which side had caused what damage, given the fact that from the snippets of vids on the net she had seen the beowolf hadn't been carrying a gun. Or driving a Paladin.

It was nice to have the tension though. They had heard through the vine that while the government was being quiet about things they were particularly sore about the fact that a foreign military had effectively cut a path through their city without letting the authorities know what was up. 'Automated Defense Systems' was the claim that Atlas was making, supposedly.

Cinder didn't care about that, so much as the fact that Atlas had been forced out of the city in the past three days with their military now sitting mostly on the edges of the Kingdom. A bit more risky for their hideout but when things were actually happening… The response time was so slow that they were making progress by leaps and bounds.

Except for Mercury.

Somehow, the guy kept getting his meetings messed up. He was the one who was supposed to be brokering the deal with the Fang through Adam, but each time a face-to-face deal was supposed to happen someone would rat. It was starting to become a problem.

Junior, despite being an oaf of a man, had information that nobody else did. Cinder seemed to know why but Emerald didn't, making her a bit suspicious of the Club owner. Oh well, if the man was useless Cinder would have dealt with him.

Stepping onto the next bus she took a seat near the front and kept her eyes focused out the side of the vehicle and at the opposite side of the street. She didn't see Ruby Rose seated half way down the bus, nor the bald woman in combat fatigues seated at the very end with a grin in her eyes.


	17. Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby looks into the bullets she found. The Beowolf recovers.

The skin is not a natural sensation. It rests on the flesh as the thin barrier which protects the within from the without, the self and the other. It is the interface with the tactile world, but mostly the information it gives is ignored. The rawness of being aware of every touch was what was distracting the Grimm while it got used to its armor.

New armor sat thick on the darkness of its 'skin', developed relatively slowly in chunks as the beast tore pieces of the old carapace off. It hadn't hurt per se, more like the relief that came from tearing off an old bandage, followed by the sensitivity of clothing over the healed injury. That sensation covered the beast as it climbed its way up the cliff face which had been made into its new habitat. Not long after it had begun to shift its armor the humans had come and hauled it off by Bullhead. It had been a bit more snappy than usual, which was to say that it bared its teeth to the escort which had tried to force it into the ship.

It had definitely felt the influence exerted over its mind when 'naked'. Now, with the three inches of armor along the chest and upper back it could no longer feel the pull towards the humans on the opposite side of the valley. It was a refeshing sensation, enough so that the beast was willing to live with the annoyance to keep from attempting...

Taking a deep breath in through its mouth and huffing it through its nose the beast dispelled the pull. Redoubling its climbing efforts it hauled itself up to the next ridge on the cliff and took a moment to plan out its next path of ascent. The Cliff was the largest in this region of the Continent, visible from a great distance with a clear line of sight. Its steepest face was about a kilometer tall and visible from most parts of Forever Falls. The Grimm remembered it vaguely thanks to the fact that its old pack had traced a path not too far from the valley which rose to meet the face of the cliff.

The origin of the waterfall which poured over the front of the cliff not far from the line of ascent was the target. The wolf scaled the drop for the chance to get a good look at its own reflection. The first set of armor it had was an exercise in observation more than anything. Sound was much easier for a Beowolf to detect than any human so finding what penalties the armor gave were initially spotty in that regard. Only the forearms were really visible so it was hard to tell what the rest of it looked like, though it hadn't taken long to figure out it was white before. There were many little things that the beast was curious about, so it wanted to find its reflection.

Finding a vertical crack it wedged its arms in and then dug in its claws, locking it in place for a second chance to get a good look. With its arms in place and unmoving it was free to pivot slightly and peer up the cliff, though the buzzing of a BullHead's rotors quickly distracted it.

Twisting its back was still possible if a bit more stiff than with its old armor, so it was able to turn almost fully to see the flying machine hover up towards its location. It was slightly surprised that it had done so, the huntsmen who were inside tended to keep their distance. The lack of foliage in the rough rock that led up to the base of the ridge meant they could see it from a fair distance, creeping up now seemed a bit off.

It waited there for a few minutes as the armored vehicle floated up parallel to the face, side door slowly opening up. The Grimm shifted to it was resting its weight on its left claws and those on its feet, twisting now more fully so it was looking out. In the open bay a green-haired man with thick glasses looked out, flask in hand.

Oobleck took a long sip of his drink before slipping it into a holster he had at his hip. Moving his glasses up to the top of his forehead to keep the brushing of wind near his face from shifting his hair too much from under the hat he had on. _This is… Brilliant._

The man always had a knack for observation but… This was making things to easy. He could see a beowolf climbing a cliff face and was easily able to see _how_.

 _What could have possibly gripped the Grimm to attempt something like this?_ He thought as he peered at the veins in the rock made by the claws. _Beowolves have some characteristics of man, lack abilities that allow them to move arms effectively. Like a gorilla one supposes. Climbing should be uncomfortable at best but it pushes._

His thoughts were cut off when there was a rushing of air and a thud, the bullhead swinging slightly with the sudden force. The beowolf landed in the cargo space heavily, flexing its hands to dislodge the pebbles between claws and fingers.

Not sparing the huntsman a glance it unclipped the bag it had strapped over its shoulder and set it on the floor of the bullhead. The yellow and black bag was the same one that Yang had offered days prior. It was using it mostly to carry its scroll, which it extracted carefully from a padded slot near the 'top end' of the bag.

Oobleck knew that this meant the beowolf was going to be making a message. Twice before the Grimm had made short queries or statements using its scroll. _Miss Belladonna made impressive progress in her teaching._

He looked to the cockpit and motioned for them to stay at their current altitude, but pull away from the cliff slightly. The pilot did so even when the Wolf grumbled its displeasure with getting farther from its path to the top. Even so it appeared to calmly open the painting application on its scroll and roughly etch something out.

Holding it up Oobleck was pleased that he instantly understood what the beast wanted. _A simple right angle for the cliff and an arrow line in a diamond. It's using human iconography- probably from road signs it saw in the city. It's doubtable that the girls taught the wolf how to create minimalist instructions quickly_.

When the professor nodded the beowolf closed the scroll and placed it carefully back in its bag and slung the strap over its shoulder. It was careful to keep the items nearby, and even when displaying the image to Oobleck the beast had been careful to keep it close enough that the professor wouldn't be able to snatch it from its hands.

_Skeptical enough to keep 'valuables' out of reach, confident enough to enter a vehicle filled with its enemies hundreds of meters above the ground. Is that a value statement, or does it think it can survive the drop?_

The answer seemed to be clear when the beowolf neared the opening of the Bullhead and peered out of it, one hand curled on the safety bar which lined the top. Oobleck looked more closely at the construction of the hand and found it different immensely from what he had been expecting.

Before, the hands were like clawed gauntlets, the armor and claw being one contiguous form, the claws arching over the ends of the fingers. Now the construction was that the claws collapsed flat against the palm into slits along the fingers and heel of the hand. As it gripped the bar the hands were obviously more human than before, even with the 'gauntlet'. The thumb and fingers were all proportioned similarly to a humans, even if the hand itself was much larger than most.

 _For weapons._ The professor thought, though he was skeptical if that was all that the Grimm had in mind. The flat and long fingers with short thumbs were probably a bit of a hassle for the beast when trying to manipulate objects with its hands. _So a more practical approach? Possibly._

This was what was simultaneously exciting and dampening the mood of the professor. As the bullhead swiftly approached the cliff's edge he was left with the problem of being unable to determine what meant what. He knew of behavioural studies carried out with those who had souls. The 'mundane' creatures had a certain way of getting into routine and determining the best way to complete a task. _Understanding_ the intricacies of such a process requires rigorous and extended observation of the subject in a particular environment to see the stimuli and reaction. The Beowolf in front of it was already reacting, but to _change x_ to _suit y_ was impossible to exactly determine.

_Team RWBY is most likely to know the cause. I can guess, but it's ineffective, unfortunately._

His brows creased when the Grimm coiled and then leapt the rest of the distance from the bullhead to solid ground. It caused the bullhead to sway with the opposite force required to propel the beast the fifty feet. He could see it land on all fours and use each limb to propel it forward at a fair clip as if it hadn't hit the ground at high speed, laterally or not.

 _This is certainly an animal to be observed closely._ He thought to himself as the side door closed and the bullhead shifted to land.

**/**

"You know, Doc. D is already one of my least favorite profs and I haven't even sat in class with him." Yang groaned as she watched the download progress of the combined files slowly tic along. "Two weeks to look at all of _this_ …" She laid back on her bunk and shook her head before setting the scroll aside and look over to Blake, who had started her download earlier while they were at lunch. "Is it as bad as it looks?"

"No." The faunus replied flatly. She was tired of her teammate complaining about the workload, but at the same time knew it was partially the brawler reminding herself of her part in the mess. "There are some vids and lectures attached which is why it's so long. He wasn't lying about the 60 page length, it's relatively short."

"Synergetics looks like it is the thickest bit." Weiss said from her seat on one of the beds, shuffling through the papers they had been handed. It wasn't the full package, just the introductory stuff that outlined what the course entailed, expectations, so on and so forth. The particular part of the table of contents she was looking at it seemed more than 30% of it was dedicated to teamwork. "'The theory of collective action, roles, motions, and their part in teams' is the definition. So it's teamwork." She set the papers aside for a moment and glared up at the ceiling. "Isn't that what we've been working on for almost a year?"

Blake hummed her agreement as she flipped through to the section Weiss was talking about. "It looks like it is the formal layout for teams of four or larger. Different roles for the people to be in, specializations for tracking for example when out in the wilderness…" She trailed off as she found a mess of a flow chart which determined what role the person should be in the group. "And… This is how you can decide it?" She stated like a question as she sent a copy of the image to Yang and Weiss.

"This is… Incomprehensible." Weiss sighed as she tried to follow the lattice of lines from one question to another. "How many steps is this?"

"'Each line has thirty possible steps down and takes between five and six minutes to complete for each member of a team of four.'" Yang quoted from the subtitle of the chart. "So… Lets do Blake I guess."

"Why me?"

"Weiss would spend too much time thinking that she's more than one thing, the same reason we wouldn't ask Ruby."

"Hey!"

"Ugh, let's just get on with it." Blake said, setting her scroll aside so she wouldn't be tempted to pathfind through the answers to get what she wanted. "Ask me the question, then the possible answers."

"Yeah, yeah." Yang replied, waving away the instructions. "Rapid fire, alright?"

"Sure."

"Human or Faunus?"

"What does that have to- fine, Faunus."

"Melee, ranged, hybrid, melee and dust."

"Hybrid."

"Sword, dagger, stave, gauntlet-"

"For the love of…" Weiss said, rolling her eyes as she cut off Yang. "Just go through the chart for her. We know her well enough we can answer the questions."

"Fine, fine." Yang sighed dramatically as she acquiesced, happy she didn't need to go through the back-and-forth. She took a minute to go through the entire chart, backtracking every few questions to make sure she was on the right track. The reason for the density of the chart was obvious when she got to the rather specific questions near the end which still had four possible answers.

"Prime Recon, Forward." Yang finally announced after double-checking the answer. "Basically you're the one who should have the strongest tracking skill and be able to find the target and lead us to it in the timeliest manner."

"Huh." The Faunus shrugged, checking the possible outcomes herself. "Five different Prime Recons, two different Delta Recons, one Reverse Track..." She shook her head at the number of outcomes near her own. "This is surprisingly detailed… But why does it want to know if the subject is a Faunus?"

"Well, the Semblance questions were a bit different;" Yang tried to find where they were asked. "Somewhere in here… Eh, it's not worth it. The Semblance questions a bit later changed slightly from what I saw. How much that changed it… I don't know."

"There are 68 different definitions." Weiss said, a brow arching. "Why would they need this many?"

"It's described as an archaic form for a military regiment of 68 people, but it can be divided down into groups slimming down to four." Blake clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "But it doesn't really say why it is used now. I guess to figure out what your team's composition is strong and weak in."

With that thought in mind, if a bit skeptical about whether or not a flow chart (unnecessarily complex or not) could be accurate, the rest of their team was charted out. Yang figured out Ruby's since she wasn't present, Blake did Weiss' and Weiss did Yang's. It was a nice moment of quiet, but it did distract the blonde of the group after a few minutes.

"I wonder what JNPR will get." Yang murmured, half to herself. The two teams hadn't spoken yet, and something about the fact their friends hadn't been in the cafeteria was off-putting to her. She knew the other team had seen their message, the question was how were they responding to it?

Weiss made a 'tch' noise, looking up from her scroll with a sour look on her face. "If they don't figure out who's side they're on they might never get a chance."

"Hey, we went over this." Blake cut in coolly before Weiss could go off. "If they aren't ready, they aren't ready. We don't know if _we're_ ready but we're doing this anyways, we can't jump on our friends for wanting to be prepared."

The sudden ice in the air stopped Weiss who apologized, even if she was still a bit annoyed. She, much like Nora, believed that the two teams should stick together even if it was dangerous. They should do it because _that's what friends_ _ **do.**_ They both felt this intensely, but Blake and Yang had convinced Weiss that though they had jumped on the chance, they had the Wolf's life at stake. A life hung over their heads, it didn't for team JNPR.

It was a good reason, but not all good reasons are accepted as adequate.

**/**

Ruby stepped off the bus and opened her scroll to see if there were any messages waiting for her. She didn't know from who, but she wanted one to be there. Some easy answer was bound to be around the corner, right? Why was she stressing about this in the first place?

Seeing nothing in her inbox she pocketed her device and took a slightly roundabout route to get to Junior's. She was pretty sure she'd be able to get into the place since Yang was able to, but if she needed to sneak in to talk to the owner of the bar then she needed a plan of attack. Probably entailing sneaking through back doors.

It was still early afternoon so there wouldn't be too many people inside the club according to Yang, and if the goons got rowdy they weren't too much of a hassle to deal with. She wasn't scared really, just apprehensive. She didn't really want to find an answer to the question of whether or not her Wolf had intentionally killed three people and injured many more.

It seemed impossible. Then again the gimm had disarmed her and swung her scythe around for interest's sake months ago when she first met it. So it theoretically might be able to steal a weapon like-

Gritting her teeth she tried to shake off the creeping sensation of wrongness. For whatever reason this question was tearing her up inside when the problem with what she was doing was obvious. She was going behind her teammates' backs to figure out if their Beowolf was a murderer. That was enough to be discomforting.

The face of the club was a bit odd, she would admit. It looked like a block from the mercantile region of Vale, just plopped right in the middle of the industrial area. You could have had a bakery on the main floor, maybe a veterinary clinic, anything really. For whatever reason someone decided that they would dig out the underside and put in the biggest club in the continent.

Approaching the front door of the club she couldn't hear any music from the tall walls of the building as she had expected. Nothing really gave away the true nature of the establishment. Nobody was guarding the front door, no bouncer like she had expected from watching television. She guessed they didn't put gruff looking guys outside the doors unless the flow demanded it.

Slipping through the doors she descended the broad stairs to see a broad dance floor with four pillars at its corners with shifting lights. The floor itself was empty aside from a couple men in black with red glasses that were making hand signals towards someone standing in the DJ booth. Walkways along the walls lead to different rooms which were shuttered off from the floor itself, and a raised platform on one side had booths for people to sit down.

The bar was pulsing red, white and black faintly, the clear glass mostly dull as the bartender wiped it down. It was almost comically long, being several meters long and making up most of one wall. It was like the woman tending it was surrounded by it, but Ruby guessed there would be others during peak times that there would be more people staffed there.

Walking towards the bar as it seemed like a good place to start she kept shifting her eyes across the large room. It looked extravagant, definitely looking like a place that shone during the night when the lights were all shifting together and the music was loud. The booths had a few people sitting in them but she couldn't make them out from her distance. Probably other members of the staff?

"Uh, hey, can I see-"

"Junior?" The bartender asked as she flipped through the night's drinks menu. "He just got in. Do you have an appointment?"

Slightly taken aback by the fact the redhead didn't even look up Ruby was silent for a moment before replying. "Uh, no, I just thought-"

Before she could continue the woman, wearing red slacks and a matching oxford with a black vest over top took off her sunglasses and peered at the younger woman. The line of piercings along the top of one of her brows and down the right side of her nose caught the light, distracting Ruby for a moment. The bartender placed the soft end of the right arm of her glasses in her mouth as she pulled her phone out from the back pocket of her trousers and sent a quick message off that the huntress-in-training couldn't see.

"Ruby Rose, sister of Yan Xiaolong?" The woman asked, receiving a nod. "Junior is expecting you and will be here shortly."

"Ah… Thanks." Ruby replied, a bit surprised that she was expected. Actually now that she was being lead to the booths by the redhead she was second-guessing her choice in sticking around. Nobody was acting particularly suspicious though, the operators of the club still working on whatever they were doing.

Approaching a table off-centre in the lounge area the bartender pulled out one of the seats for Ruby and motioning for her to sit down. Accepting the offer, if a bit uncomfortably, she put her hands together in her lap and listed in her mind all the new reasons why she probably should have brought her team along with her and not tried to be sneaky about this.


	18. Speak and be Heard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby doesn't get the answers she wants, but finds what she needs. Ozpin tries to put a lid on the rumors.

**Hei Xiong:**

"Well, the girl is here now. Time for you to decide." Jin Xiong told Junior as she entered the office at the back of the club, the heels of dress shoes clacking dully against the tiled floor. She had a blank face on, though the younger brother knew for a fact that she was passing heavy judgement with each breath he drew.

"Cinder isn't someone we want knocking on our doorstep." Junior sighed, but standing anyways and brushing imaginary dust off of his crimson tie. "We know she'll start a fire and lock us in, our 'friend' can only claim to keep that from happening."

"What they meant is that they can keep the place open, Junior." Jin scoffed, a light sneer directed towards Hei. "This place has been a base for guilds from overseas for decades. This place will stay open whether the fine people of Vale have it in their best interest or not. _Your_ 'friend' can keep _you_ alive. Maybe not out of jail, but also not spitted over a fire."

"I'll take jail in Vale over slow-roasting." Was the grunted reply as the club operator stepped around his desk and looked out the one-way window to the mostly empty club. Things were coming along nicely for the return of Braemor, the new lights and sound system updates being mostly complete. Only the ones he trusted were working tonight, so most of his staff (what some called goons) had the day off. He could easily see Ruby Rose seated at one of the tables, and just as easily see Emerald Sustrai at the only booth on the bar side of the club. The two couldn't see each other, which is what he wanted. He also knew a certain woman was probably keeping a close eye nearby. His own mole in the force, supposedly.

Adjusting his tie one last time the man exited the office and descended the walkway towards Sustrai, deciding she was the best to deal with first. It was a simple feed, someone was lying to her in the Fang, which they were. He'd have to leave out the fact it was one of his men of course. That would be tying the noose around his own neck.

He gave a quick greeting to Emerald before sliding her a sealed envelope with the misdirection enclosed. He wasn't one to make use of the 'I know what you came here for' cliche when it wasn't absolutely necessary but every once in a while it was useful to get a few deals sealed more quickly than normal. Listening to people tell him something he already knew was a pet peeve that he had learned to get around when the job needed it, but the newfound patience wasn't any more fun to exercise.

Making a slow loop of the club until Sustrai had taken her leave the bear of a man finally approached Ruby, who at that point had been waiting a fairly intense ten minutes, who was no longer feeling so worried. She looked a bit bored, staring up at the ceiling with her neck resting against the back of the chair in a sleepy manner.

"Sorry for the wait, had to deal with a bit of other business first." Junior said as he pulled out his seat directly across from Ruby and pulled a cigar case from his breast pocket. "The name's Junior, I run this Club."

"Ah-" Ruby muttered, snapping back into focus to see the proprietor pulling out a cigar from his case. He looked at her with a face which read 'do you mind?', to which she nodded. "I'm here because I was told you know everything that goes on in the city."

Ruby realized that sounded pretty darn cliché, but she bit her tongue to keep from backtracking.

"Did Yang Xiaolong, tell you that?" He asked, knowing the answer. He wouldn't readily forget the time he was humiliated in his own club in front of his own men. The blonde came for his information on one of the few people in Vale he knew nothing about. Well, nothing he could sell at least. "She's exaggerating, but people talk all the time in places like this. Even things they _shouldn't_."

"Then you know what happened with the Beowolf?"

"Some big grimm looking like something out of a horror movie ran Atlas right through the city. Not much to say. Unless you have something more specific in mind."

Ruby nodded slowly before reaching into her pocket and pulling out the anti-material round. The deformed lead had been kept close at hand ever since she had extracted it from the grimm. She wanted answers from it, even if it told _her_ very little directly.

"A ballistics charge." He said. "Probably-"

".50 Special+, used in the Mac-M Tactical which is the anti-vehicle charge used against huge Grimm or vehicles. It's carried by the Valean SWAT team." Ruby listed off as an impulse. She sat there awkwardly for a moment before continuing. "The Beowolf was shot with it, and it could have been the same weapon that shot down the Bullhead…"

While she continued to prattle on about the uses of the charge in… A dizzying number of circumstances, Junior needed to be careful. She seemed to be looking for him to finish her thought which wasn't an uncommon fishing move. People would come to him to see what had been said or collected and would try and see if he had info he wasn't sharing in full. He wasn't particularly worried about Ruby Rose since he had nothing he needed to resell, more so just the problem of another rampage through his building if she felt slighted.

"You want to know if there is some connection between whomever shot the beast and who shot down the Atlesian ship."

"Yeah."

"Then the answer is simple," Junior began, looking over to the man at the DJ booth before continuing, "my guys were stationed around the city when your friend started to push through the city so they saw most everything that happened." Setting his cigar down Junior leaned forward on his elbows. "Two people were carrying high gauge rifles that day. One was seen prone on top of the Mall, one was stationed on the exact same Bullhead that was shot down."

Ruby was instantly intrigued but simultaneously skeptical. She shifted in her seat and crossed her legs before furrowing her brow. "How do you know that?"

"Vale's military is rarely exercised, but there is some overlap between what Atlas uses and what Vale uses. My men were keeping an eye on the sky to see if they could see the weapons that Atlas were carrying. Their military capabilities are not very well known, so I had men positioned on rooftops, street corners, in buildings…" He made a circular motion with his hand to dramatize the fact there were men posted wherever there was a chance of seeing something. "You get the point. It seemed like they were taking shots using the Bullhead as a platform."

Jin Xiong returned from behind Ruby and placed a scroll in front of her. A short video played, obviously taken from a fair distance, of someone prone on top of the Mall taking two shots. The video zoomed out to show the Bullhead in question floating away. A third shot was heard and one of the rotors exploded sending it into a downward spiral. The summary heap disappeared behind a tall building, and by the time the camera panned back to where the sniper was the person was gone.

"Then why…" Ruby began, shaking her head. It seemed like this would be conclusive evidence that the beowolf wasn't responsible for the deaths of those in the Bullhead. It had nothing to do with the fact that it fell, some completely unrelated third party had their hands on it. Why would they have even think to blame the Beowolf with this evidence?!

"The wolf did have a hand in the events." Jin said, continuing from where Junior left off. "The Beowolf had already forced three craft to land by striking them in the side when they got in its way. This particular Bullhead had been slammed into when it cut off a roadway minutes prior."

"That doesn't mean that the damage would be fatal to the ship!" Ruby implored, her voice raising as she became certain of the truth and the fact that she was looking at a third party. "The beowolf was looking at a death sentence because of this person. This clears its name and saves it!" Standing she picked up the scroll, copying the video file to her own and stepping away from the table.

"And what will happen when it's free?" Jin asked calmly as she stepped back from Ruby to allow her to leave. "Free to do what?"

Ignoring the woman Ruby left the club swiftly, bumping into a table or two as she planned out in her head how to get back to the station. Expression hardening slightly Jin took the seat the young Huntress had left behind and crossed her legs, leaning back and shaking her head.

"Exactly as you asked." She said, answering the question from the woman behind her before it was asked. "Even the little things which didn't seem to mean anything."

"And here I was thinking Junior would need some more prodding." The bald woman said dryly as she placed a police file in front of the redhead along with a sealed envelope. The file was left alone for a moment while the bartender opened the envelope and checked the stack of notes within.

"You didn't give him much of a choice." Jin replied as she slotted the cash back into the envelope, folded it, and put it in her chest pocket. She stood and turned to face the black-clothed individual who had managed to buy out Junior's loyalty. The dark-skinned woman had a warm smile on her face, jovial even, though Jin was suspicious of it.

"If I gave him too long to think he might have smartened up and realized the greater threat to his life wasn't the authorities but the lady on fire who would cauterize the hemorrhage of information herself." The woman chuckled as she held out her hand. "He is as good as burned. But you and I? We have a long road ahead of us."

**Deio:**

"Deio, thank you for coming on such short notice." Ozpin said with a smile as the doors to his office slid open and the burly archer walked into the room in his civvies. "I thought it would be best to let you know what is going on with a few of our students… Though no doubt you have heard some rumors."

"A few unsettling ones." The prof said as he rolled the sleeves of his shirt up to just below the elbows. In a plain red turtleneck and cargo pants the man looked a bit more imperious than he normally did. For being under six feet he was quite stocky, the dwarf of the staff. "Even the staff gossip and I'm not going to say I'm above listening… Sometimes."

"Hmph." The headmaster was hardly surprised that rumors had spread, though the lack of professionalism from the upper year professors was concerning. He had a very soft grip on things as it was and didn't need any particular details about team RWBY and their friend moving off the cliff. "We need to make sure those rumors don't leave the staff, alright?" Ozpin implored as he leaned forwards on his staff.

"Of course." Deio said it with deference, but he himself was feeling rather chuffed at the secret-keeping. The fact that professors which normally handled the younger forms were guarding such a suspect was a good reason to be annoyed in his book.

Nodding, the headmaster walked around his desk and leaned back on the front edge, facing Deio. He took with him his cup of tea and took a long sip before setting it aside and clasping his hands in his lap. "I need to you personally train team RWBY, and if they follow in their friend's path, team JNPR as well."

Pressing a button on a console near the centerof his desk Ozpin projected a hologram near the center of the room which showed a certain beowolf. Leaning forward on its front hands like a normal beowolf, but with developed plate armor on its body. The next was of the same beowolf but with slightly modified armor which allowed it to stand straight, though in that particular image it looked like it was climbing something. Two more images of the beowolf in slightly different types of armor around the back and arms in different postures were showed. Deio was silent, and didn't move to make comment.

The last image wasn't in 3D, and instead a 2D image of the Beowolf. Pieces of its armor were missing, puncture wounds on its chest and shards had been removed from its helm and hands. In the darkness the redness of the flesh underneath glowed an angry read. It was a photo taken by one of the Huntsmen while RWBY was tending the wounds.

"This, is the reason for the current unsettled nature of the kingdom." Ozpin sighed as he let the images cycle through. "A beowolf of old age which has managed to form a relationship with some of the students here."

Looking from the picture to the headmaster Deio arched a brow. "What do you need from me? Managing public opinion is the job of the Vice-head and yourself."

"James wants it put down. I see a much more utile use of it in turning some part of the war in humanity's favor." The headmaster stepped away from his desk and walked to the hologram, his eyes trained on the form of an unhappy beast being patient with the fussing of humans. "In all of human history no Grimm has ever approached humanity with anything but hostility…"

"And you want the ones who you think are responsible for it kept safe." Deio skipped to the point. But he knew that this task was going to be an easy one. Secrets were easy to keep on the cliffs, and the Huntsmen kept them all the time. This, despite being a categorical difference from other issues in the past, probably wasn't going to be any harder a sell to faculty than installing soda dispensers in the cafeteria.

Potentially less dividing as well.

"Yes." Ozpin breathed as he walked back to his chair and took a seat. "There are two distinct parties involved in the events as far as the Council of Ministers has been able to determine." He pulled out a data compact and placed it on the top of the glass surface. "One who has been causing the problems with the Fang, one which has been influencing the development of the beowolf."

"At least one of those two pose an active threat to team RWBY." Ozpin continued before leaning forward in his chair and grabbing his glass from its position near the opposite edge. "I want you to be their Vixi during their off-campus activities. They might be the most important people of our time, and we need them safe."


	19. What lies in Pools

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Beowolf finds something similar in the wilderness. Njala moves herself into place.

**Three Days after Ruby received her 'proof'.**

**Beowolf:**

"Time to go." Oobleck called to his charge. He was standing on the shore of the pool of water at the very top of the cliff, a hand over his eyes to keep them from the glare of the sun. He was wearing hip waiters so he wasn't getting wet, but the prospect of accidentally stepping into one of the deep pits kept him at the shore. "Your return requires disguise, so if you would please come to shore and stop playing with the cecaelia…"

Half-ignoring the PHD-holder the beowolf pulled its arm up and out of the water, carrying with it two small cecaelia not much larger than a human child. Cecaelia were a waterborne grimm, one of quite a few, and similarly to beowolves had some vaguely human characteristics. Their lower bodies were comprised of tentacles like those of an octopus, and those where what were clenching onto the beast's arm for support. The pitch-black and almost rubbery appendages coiled in an attempt to heave the small grimm higher into the air.

**Oobleck:**

Their upper bodies were mostly human, with two arms and hands and a distinguishable head, but their eyes were far too large, their body too lean. They looked much more like their fishy counterparts than any human with any close observation. That said as Oobleck watched the beowolf pull one of the cecaelia off and place it on the other arm where it was upright he could easily see it as a wolf-knight playing with mer-children.

 _A dangerous assumption_ , he thought as he pursed his lips. Cecaelia were known for being bizarrely well adapted for hunting humans. Their young would tempt children to the waters while hiding their true and more repulsive image, the older and more human looking ones would try and draw a human near and into the water over the course of months. They were hardly story-book fodder, they were the thing of nightmares for some. Apparently they were a lot less menacing to a beowolf who might be older than the wellspring they lived in.

 _Men and Women alike are drowned by the dozen each year on all continents bar Atlas, and that's only because Atlesian waters are too cold for any human to comfortably swim in._ He glanced over to one of the larger holes in the bottom of the pool to see a fully-grown cecaelia poking its head out of the water. Its eyes shone a bright red, but were arced and formed in the exact same way as a humans, along with the form of the neck, chest, waist and arms. The hair was a dead giveaway as it was a light blue and green, and comprised of fifty or so tentacles sans-suckers as opposed to something more human. Unlike the young which lacked grimm masks, the adult had a mask which looked almost like one for a masquerade. It watched Oobleck for a moment before swimming over to the beowolf and prodding it with a 'leg' or three. _Quiet, but meant to be seen. Opportunist and planner. Of all generic grimm the most dangerous and easy to contain._

**Beowolf:**

The large cecaelia caught the grimm's attention for a moment and it looked over to the newcomer with a small amount of surprise. It had spent a fair chunk of each day poking and prodding these weird looking fish but hadn't realized they got any bigger. It had counted eight nearly identical small ones thus far, all about the same size, so it had assumed they were all about the same volume.

Leaning down towards the cecaelia to sniff it through the slots in the end of its formed helmet it was surprised when it was suddenly hauled into the water by an immense weight. Floundering for a moment at the surface it was eventually towed into the deepest part of the pool by the grimm. It didn't move its limbs once it was under the water because it didn't feel like it was in any particular danger at the moment, not from this particular animal at least.

In the water it latched onto a steep wall of the pool and looked out at the inquisitive aggressor. It looked at the cecaelia and saw its inquisition dully matched. Through the light streaking down from the top of the pool it could see the fine white lines of armor reaching from the tips of the fingers and weaving into a lattice along the hands and towards the elbows in a sort of glove. The same white armor wrapped close to the sides of the creature in a layered pattern not wholly unlike the old plate armor the beowolf used to have.

 _ **SAME**_ _._ Was the not-quite-correct thought that crossed the beowolf's mind as it was suddenly overcome with a particularly strong sense of _glee_. Its maw opened and it blew out a flurry of bubbles as it launched itself from the wall and at the cecaelia at a significantly higher speed than the other grimm had expected. It had enough speed and caused enough surprise that it was able to all but pin the cecaelia to the other side with one gauntlet piercing the rock and letting it hang.

Wrapping its tentacles around the beowolf to hold it back the wolf for a moment. It scanned the beast with its own eyes for a moment, trying to figure out what exactly it had in its clutches. It had seen dozens of different types of animal that had climbed up to the top of the cliff and strayed too close to the open water when the cecaelia were feeling inquisitive. This one… Was weird.

It had noticed the younger ones heading up to the surface for a while, and had snuck a peek the day prior. Wondering what it was, and especially interested in why what smelled like a grimm was white colored, it hadn't called the others to it.

Lifting up a hand it touched the armor of the beast and was surprised to find that it was exactly the same that it had on its own hands. It was difficult to tell with the hand itself since sensation was dulled, but the tentacles were more than able to tell that it was the same. It spent a moment processing the information before it realized that the water was thick with something human.

It could hear the sounds of water being rustled about below as the cecaelia in the Cliffside rushed to see what human was straying so close to a source of water in the middle of nowhere. Before it could figure out what to do the Beowolf was pulling itself – and its bewildered counterpart – clear free of the water and onto the land.

It cast its eyes about in surprise as it felt air on its skin, the air quickly drying the residual water as the beowolf leaped clear to shore near Oobleck. It tried to use its tentacles to slow it down but the wolf was barely reacting, if at all, to the restrictive force.

**Oobleck:**

So unaware was the wolf of what was going on that as it approached Oobleck it didn't even notice the fully armored Atlesian bullhead and soldiers standing guard around a large steel crate. It walked right past it and towards Oobleck with the lump of octopus-y grimm. It jumped clear over a soldier who tried to stop it, landing right beside Oobleck with a loud thud. The professor turned around and his eyes widened when he saw what the beowolf was doing.

"DO NOT SHOOT." He bellowed uncharacteristically loud as a few of the more nervous soldiers trained their sights on the beowolf and its unwilling cargo. "If you do I'll toss you in the sinking pools myself. It's just excited."

 _Excited? I have no other way of describing its choice to pull a fully grown grimm from the water and run over here…_ There was no place it could really take the cecaelia since there were no major bodies of water nearby, especially on the cliff which only had the one. He made a point of walking back to the pool, the action causing the beowolf to huff unhappily but follow. _Does it want on the bullhead? To go back to Beacon with it?_

Looking out the corner of his eye he was able to see the white armor that was on the waterborne grimm's waist and hands and instantly cooked a hypothesis. _Might he want to take something that shares the armored characteristic with it? Possibly to… Show to team RWBY._

Yes, that seemed like the most likely reason. From a practical viewpoint it absolutely did not; if the wolf restrained it all the way to beacon the cecaelia would likely die much like how other grimm died in captivity. _It is too excited. For all my observation it has only appeared as a stoic, if inquisitive, beast. This is the first showing of an identifiable emotion… or is it? Possibly could be expressed as dogs are pleased to see other dogs._

 _Dogs have souls though, similarities are still significant._ He decided as he stopped just short of the pool. At a glance he could see that thirteen more grimm were hanging out near the surface with various different headdresses and expressions from sultry to embarrassed. Making sure he was outside the range of a grasping arm or tentacle he turned to look at the Beowolf to see a hand thrust in his face.

Looking closely at the humanoid hand he could see now, just as clearly as before (if a bit larger) that this particular cecaelia had begun to create armor. _A name should exist for this process. Creation, Genesis, Garde… Similar to the mask of a grimm. Call the object Masque, the process Genesis._

He would have touched the hand if not for it recoiling away when the beowolf let go. The poor mer was obviously unsure of what to do, unwilling to try and get into a fight with a human out of water and so close to metal monstrosities, and not wanting to remain in the grip of the other beast for much longer.

"Put it in the water." He said to the beowolf clearly and pointedly, nodding to the water. When the grimm shook its head and its brows creased the huntsman decided to just go ahead with a crude explanation. He pulled out his thermos and poured some of the coffee onto the dry ground. "Look."

Pointing to the ground and at the difference, then picking up a lump of the dry dirt and showing how easy it was to crush. It took a few times of pantomiming it and pointing to the cecaelia for the beowolf to eventually get the picture. The fact that the mer was reaching out with some of its longer tentacles towards the water also helped.

**Beowolf:**

Huffing its displeasure, but acquiescing to the demands, the wolf walked over to the pool and tossed the cecaelia in, allowing it to dive down into the depths and out of sight before resurfacing. From dry land it watched each of the octopus-like beings for any other instances of armor, or as Oobleck had just dubbed it, Masque _._ Seeing none, or just the mask part, it blew some air out through its nose. Reaching to a ridge along the top of a gauntlet it severed a piece of its armor and tossed it into the water near its target, who snatched it up quickly.

The rest of the cecaelia noticed the force nearby and the lack of interest and decided to resubmerge into the waterways of the spring. Once they were out of sight the wolf turned and seemed to sigh. It followed Oobleck to the Bullhead and approached the crate that had been dropped.

**Adam Taurus:**

"I've finalized the details." Adam Taurus said as he walked into Cinder's office. His arms were crossed under his chest with his sword cradled in the crook of his right arm. His mask still covered the upper part of his face, not that Cinder minded. If she needed to humor his tiny sense of mystique she would, so long as he continued to get her the support of the White Fang. That is, until she was able to keep them under her thumb with power alone. "I have the information on the moves being made by Atlas. Despite the people complaining they're providing mechanical puppets to guard the city when the Festival gets going."

"Interesting…" Cinder sighed as she took the offered datapad and looked over the contents. Automated pets which had been shown months earlier not long before the little 'accident' with the train. She had seen the mechs cut their way through grim back then. She had wondered what exactly they might be able to do with them. "If we were able to get a man in to wherever they are controlled, how long would it take to get complete control?"

"I've spoken to a technician, he required incentives." Adam pulled a piece of paper out from the front pocket of his cloak and handed it to Cinder. "From what he said it would depend on whether or not Atlas expected an attack from within. It's a dangerous play."

Weighing her options Cinder was having some difficulty trying to weave the possible control into her overall scheme. It could be another element to bend into her favor, but it could also be another crumb on the trail, and it could lead right to her. During this critical time it wasn't a good idea to take undue risks… _But…_

 _The main event will be the tournament. That remains the goal._ Gritting her teeth a moment she scrolled through the documentation a bit more. _But… If we can get our hands on an inside man with control of their main defenses it will be down to civvies to stop us. Malfunctioning guards would work as a great distraction while we maintain deniability._

"Find a few of your best men for a reconnaissance mission." Cinder decided, going with the half-measure. "Find out everything you can about their security systems that have been put in place. If it looks like it will be an easy task, report back to me for final say. If there is _any_ chance of it backfiring or getting our hands red, I'll find something else."

"Yes Sir." The faunus replied, inclining his head slightly before turning and approaching the exit of the room. Before he opened the door he turned to face Cinder again. "The _particulars_ you messaged me about earlier. We haven't found them, but it looks like Hei Xiong may have some information. Emerald's lead dried up a bit too conveniently. Either he's a bad source, or he's hiding something."

Cinder's bemused expression didn't change and she didn't even look up from her scroll, making it clear that it was time for him to leave. Taking the hint, he exited fully, more than aware that he shouldn't return until called to do so. As he walked down the hall of the old building he saw a young woman with brown and pink hair make her way to Cinder's office. He arched a brow at the sight but didn't offer question, he had learned quickly enough that Cinder's associates were easier to deal with when mollified.

**Beowolf**

Despite the best efforts of the crew aboard the ship to hide it, there was a definite nervousness to the air as the beowolf sat on one of the seats, eyes facing forward at the half-dozen marines and full dozen mechs playing guard. The machines betrayed no emotion of course, but the humans were clearly uncomfortable with facing down their natural enemy in the tight enclosure of an airship of all places.

The Beowolf ignored it for the most part, mostly bored with the goings on and quite disappointed by the fact that it was having to leave the cecaelia behind. Of course it wasn't exactly sure where it was headed now, that much had been spoken rather quickly by the good doctor, and the beast had had a hard time keeping up at all.

What it _did_ get was that it was probably heading in the general direction of Vale or some other sizeable settlement (admittedly the only one it knew of was the city itself, so there was only one true option unless they were crossing an ocean). It reached under its seat to pull out the duffle bag and had to pause when there was a shifting of feet in the cockpit. Looking up it saw that one of the soldiers had moved his assault rifle from his side to in front of him. Technically relaxed, they were showing obvious fear and aggression. In response a chunk of the droids readied themselves.

To that soldier's embarrassment, the droids had no such concept of subtlety and fully raised their weapons, optics sighted right at the beowolf.

Huffing, the beast ignored them to fully pull the duffel bag (which was now quite dirty thanks to the lack of soap and care from the beast). It did care to keep it from tearing or rotting from water exposure, but it didn't seem to give as many worries to the fact that the bag was transitioning from black and yellow to a relatively mute sandy color.

Retrieving its scroll the Grimm used the pictogram it learned from Blake for 'where'. Much like how a human would draw a treasure map, the beowolf made a circle and an 'X' in the canvas program and connected them with a slow looping line. The 'X' had a '' next to it, the best approximation the beast could make to a question mark with the size of its hands.

Passing it to Oobleck the human peered at it for a minute or so, the beast watching as he mumbled things to himself which were both to soft and quick for it to hear, let alone attempt to internalize and understand. Eventually the man looked at the beast and said something it didn't really understand.

"Amity Colosseum."

**RWBY & JNPR**

Team RWBY on one side of the table, team JNPR on the other. They had been seated like that for a while, neither really speaking up.

Today was the day.

Outside the noise of festival preparation was able to penetrate the usually quiet library. In the past few days dozens and dozens of people had arrived on Beacon Plateau. Some were setting up the temporary hotels for the hundreds that would soon be arriving in droves, others were setting up the grand stand and the tournament rings, still others were civilians who arrived early that wanted to see the construction of the even themselves. Every hall of the old castle had a foreign throng or the noise of construction from within and without. All but the library, which was deserted. They were working on a tight deadline, and so now was the deadline for teams RWBY and JNPR coming to a close.

Ozpin had given them two weeks in the beginning, a period of time which most of the members of the two teams thought was more than generous. Now he had cut it down to a week 'by necessity'. He had told all eight of them that the next week would be more important than previously thought, and that since team RWBY had come to their decision 4 days prior, while JNPR hadn't reached a consensus, the time was now to through their lot.

Pyrrha was understandably upset.

Jaune at the end of the day would go with Pyrrha since he was the most uncertain about what was going on, though Nora and Len were now decidedly in the 'stick with RWBY' camp. Anything which directly affected the team in this way required 100% approval, however, so they were stuck at an impasse.

There was some change… Pyrrha no longer believed that the Beowolf was responsible for what had happened, the video had proven to her otherwise, but that had only given her more questions. Now she was stuck on practicality.

Ruby was having none of that.

" _Look_ ," She implored, splaying her fingers on top of the table. "just because we don't know who the woman is doesn't mean we have to be afraid. She saved it from dying when it was alone and scared." She looked around the library to make sure that nobody was hanging around who could hear them. "If not for her, the Beowolf would have died. And it's not the wolf's fault those people were in the wrong place at the wrong time." She trailed off quiet, knowing that argument wasn't particularly strong. She couldn't condone the death of a person like that, not so easily but… It wasn't fair. None of it was.

"We don't _know that._ " Pyrrha countered. "You started teaching the thing," she glanced pointedly at Blake, "because it had already started to learn. Because of a scroll and expensive tech. It _must_ have come into contact with someone before. That person is willing to kill when it isn't needed in order to protect something _less than an animal_. She isn't killing to protect a loved one, or themselves even, they're killing because they have an excuse."

"How is that any more likely than mine?" Ruby asked, bewildered, throwing her hands up into the air. "It could have been some crazy White Fang lady or that person I saw after the dance! We don't know _anything_!"

"Jaune?" Blake asked, imploring the leader of team JNPR to hopefully talk some sense into Pyrrha. "What do you think?"

"Uh." Jaune raised his hands, trying to block the expectant glances tossed his way. "I've just wanted all of us to be able to talk. There has been a lot of shouting in the dorm room in the past week so I thought this would be the best way to try and reconcile. Which is why I called Yang."

"Why don't we go see the big guy?" Nora proposed, flicking something from her finger at the open window. "I stood right beside it and it didn't try and take a bite out of me and I've gotta say I look the tastiest of all of us."

"As much as I'd _love_ to fulfill that wish, having you trek up and down the countryside with no bearings wouldn't be the best in these dangerous times." Ozpin called from his position near the door. He stood with his mug of tea in hand and his trademark half-smile. He was hiding the days of unrest and stress well for a man of his age. "I think it would be much easier to take you all directly to where it is staying."

"Is that wise?" Pyrrha asked, though she was cut off by the dramatic inhale of Ruby, who was _definitely_ the most excited to see their furry(?) friend after a few weeks without it. Pyrrha waited a moment to continue before pressing on. "Where could you keep it where Ruby can see it but nobody would be exposed?"

"Only the most secure location on Remnant. The host's box at the Amity Colliseum," Ozpin's face cracked into a grin, even as some of the more reserved members of the group (specifically Blake and Pyrrha) looked confused. "Only two people have access to it right now. Myself and a much less opposed Ironwood." Nodding to Ruby he continued. "Despite the somewhat questionable source for your information Miss Rose the general is willing to be flexible. For now."

"But-" Pyrrha spluttered, trying to understand how that logic worked.

" _And,_ it will be kept under watch on a strictly need-to-know basis. There will be no need for onerous guards or sneaking around in the night. And no more midnight lightshows comprised of my staff lighting your pet up on one of the cliffs of the academy." The headmaster sounded measured and harsh at the same time. "Amity is also the only place we have that can keep a quarantine should something happen…"

Ruby seemed ready to argue but she remained quiet, willing to accept the terms that were (honestly speaking) graciously handed down.

She was surprised by Yang's statement that followed: "Hey if you're going to put it under lock and key I should be under house arrest for picking a fight with it."

The surprising amount of bitterness in her voice caused Ozpin to hesitate with what to say, then – quite uncharacteristically – he changed the subject.

"I have a memory drive you can load into your Scroll's, each of you. If you wish to visit the Beowolf you can, so long as you have someone with you." Holding a hand up to quiet Weiss' comments, he continued. "That is only for now, and it is not my choice. Should the time come that we are satisfied that your lives are not at risk, and that it will cause no harm to property, we will find another arrangement."

As RWBY moved to install the passkey into their Scrolls and Pyrrha started to fume Ren of all people stepped forward to the headmaster, some suspicion in his eyes. "What will be done once the coliseum is moved back to Atlas?"

Ozpin seemed to think about that for a moment, weighing his options. "I do believe that at some point between the beginning of the festival and its end there will be a great change. Depending on what exactly happens at that moment we may see a titanic shift in our kingdom." He shrugged. "That's the long way of saying 'I don't' know'. Like most arrangements we Huntsmen make, they are conditional upon the will of the world."

Seemingly satisfied, but no less worried about the future, Ren stepped back again and pursed his lips. He wasn't normally someone to speak up when it didn't directly affect Nora or Himself, but when Pyrrha was distracted like this someone needed to speak up. He'd do it if he had to.

_I wonder… Just what is Ozpin afraid of?_

**Njala:**

"Guess what serg?!"

"For my great work I'm getting a raise?" The officer gasped, holding a hand to her chest in mock drama. "You shouldn't sir, if I get paid any more I'll be on a desk job. And you know how great I am with filing stuff."

"Right." The sergeant-major said, snorting. "If by great you mean I need to pick your head up off the desk and dry your saliva from untouched folders, you're a _rising star._ "

Njala leaned back in her chair and cradled her neck against laced fingers while looking up at the head of the detachment. "So then, what do you need me to do?"

"Seems the academy needs some officers doing some security on Amity once it enters Valean airspace. Not sure what they're worried about but they were looking for some swat guys. Most those guys are on alert thanks to that mess with the Atlesians a while back so they don't got much to spare, think you could hop on? You've got experience there."

Pretending to think it over Njala breathed in through her teeth like it was a painful choice. Really this was all pre-meditated. Of course SWAT wouldn't be able to cover all the needs on the high-profile case since there were fatalities during the little hiccup with the beowolf. She would be one of the people on the list since she had been helping with SWAT for a while back in the day…

_Can't help but love planning._

"I'll take it boss."


	20. Enter the Coliseum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Beowolf returns to civilization. Others move around it.

**Beowolf:**

When the airship eventually slowed to a hovering position the Beowolf got its first glimpses of Vale in quite some time. The heavy metal door opened as the ship slowly floated towards the docking platform it had reserved under Amity coliseum, the closing distance letting the wolf see the greenery below.

Any familiar scents, faint as they would have been, were immediately overridden by a somewhat smothering sent of expended dust. The beowolf stood from its seat, this time not caring to be deliberate around the humans, and walked to the door to look out. Despite vocal opposition from more than one human it grabbed onto the safety rail and leaned all the way out, looking up and down the metal structure to try and figure out what this 'Amity Coliseum' was.

Oobleck was at its side immediately, the Doctor quickly scanning the loading dock to see if anyone other than Atlesian automatons were around. Seeing that there were no live individuals nearby, he relaxed and stepped back inside to leave the Beowolf alone.

It was more valuable to see what it would do, than to try and police it. The beast was not a fool, that much was obvious.

Minutes later Oobleck and his charge had left the airship and were walking along the deck following a soldier into the belly of Amity. The service tunnels under the fighting grounds were somewhat cramped, and the beowolf needed to walk at an angle in order to actually squeeze through the tight fit. All the while it had its nose up to the air to catch the odd whiff of scent, be it of machine or man.

**Oobleck:**

The doctor was a bit taken aback by the Grimm's brazenness before, and was still surprised when they walked through Amity's underground. The Beowolf seemed to have no concern for the tight corridors or humans appearing out of the side corridors that criss-crossed their level.

Even though they were moving during a general lunch break there was still the odd person doing last-minute maintenance on whatever they were working on. Be it the pneumatics which would raise the differing eco-zones during battles, or maintaining the eco-zones themselves, Amity was a massive undertaking. Decades of practice meant that it was a smoother process year after year, but there was always running back and forth at the eleventh hour. And it was more than likely someone they didn't need could happen upon them.

As such they were moving cautiously. They were avoiding the main viaducts while still taking one of the slower routes to the executive elevators. Whenever they heard something crossing their path they waited for the individuals to pass before continuing. With the hulking form of a beowolf one might think it would be a difficult endeavor, but in reality people were far too focused on their own job to notice one odd shadow among all the darkness below.

It also helped that they had tossed a sheet on top of it.

Oobleck offered the idea of a hood, and Ozpin had come through (not that the doctor was surprised). And it was working pretty well. The beowolf was standing mostly straight up and walking on two feet and wasn't bumbling about. The fact that they had the symbol of Vacuo embossed into the back sold it a bit more, as the Faunus there included some species that were rather stocky with the builds of rhinos. The seven-foot-tall beowolf would be written off as some sort of merc acting as extra security for the VIPs. It was a bit of a lie, but Oobleck was certain they could sell it better than walking a Grimm around for the sport of it.

**Deio:**

Sitting in the stands of the coliseum the archer watched people on the opposite end of the stands work away. They were so far away that they looked like small multi-colored dots marching in line… Almost like looking down on cars while traveling by plane.

"So, how are things going with Oz?" Asked Njala, who was walking down the steps right beside him. "Is he doing well all things considered?"

The huntsman turned his head to be sure that he was indeed talking to the bald woman he recognized the voice as belonging to. He hadn't seen her in a long while, and the fact she appeared out of nowhere was a little bit surprising. Not that he shouldn't have expected an Ex-huntress like her to be walking around so brazenly where someone else might recognize her.

"You're asking me? If you're here you might as well ask him yourself, Njala." He turned his head back to look at the workers, crossing his arms and his legs at the ankles. "Though I must admit, I'm surprised you're here. I thought you were trying to get _out_ of Vale."

"I was. I got a better proposition." The woman countered, taking a seat. "I've been keeping myself busy in the city. Working with VPD of all things. Got assigned here for extra security since SWAT is currently preoccupied."

The two sat in silence for a moment with Deio stealing glances at Njala's fatigues. The taller woman was indeed sporting what he would call 'standard' equipment. She looked like she was ready to go to war, the front of her vest puffed out slightly to make room for the bullet proof layer underneath. Theoretically what she was wearing, anti-laceration fabrics and anti-ballistics material, was supposed to give normal people without the benefit of aura a chance against armed 'bad guys' in the city.

They really did believe she had no aura.

"What happened to those guns of yours?" He asked, noting that she wasn't carrying anything with her. "Did an elephant revolver not fit the look?"

Njala smiled and ribbed him picking up the rifle that sat on her side. "Standard issue, no reason to carry anything else."

Catching her overly dramatic motion, he saw that her left hand was braced with a heavy gauntlet, the melee form of her weapon. She had it on her, as always, and that made him smile. She never left home without it, even now. She never really changed, just got a better paying job with slightly better life expectancy.

"I've got to get back to work, they'll catch me if I spend too much time with you. First comes nostalgia, then comes joking, then comes the 'fuck yous' that come with all the dumb stuff that may have or may not have been a particular person's fault." The officer smiled, looking Deio's way. "I'll see you around dwarf."

"Yeah, yeah." Deio fake huffed, but Njala was already halfway up the stairs to one of the vomitoriums. "Just don't get your ass caught."

**Beowolf:**

A little hiccup in the plan, whatever that plan was, seemed to be the presence of the rather imposing human from a few weeks prior.

James Ironwood was standing in the main hall which connected the elevators to the viewing platform far above. The man's expression was fairly unreadable, something of a cross between apprehension and severity. The Beowolf could tell the man had something to say, not that the Grimm would be able to comprehend.

The small procession of the guard, the Grimm, and Oobleck slowed to a stop in front of Ironwood who remained silent for a time. He stared into the darkness of the hood the Beowolf wore and made contact with the deep darkness of its eyes. The Beowolf wasn't exactly sure what the man was looking for. There was a question hanging in the air, something heavy, but it remained unsaid.

**James Ironwood:**

The general was certainly in a bit of a conflict of mind at that moment. It was a question of nature versus nurture, the mostly fatal attempts to tame wild lions and tigers, what 'fault' was, and whether or not they were all mad.

A grimm, a beast of darkness, the very symbol of despair for humanity and fauna everywhere, stood in front of it waiting to be lifted to where dignitaries were supposed to watch bouts from during the Vytal festival. During the time when the skies will be cleared of nevermores across the entire _continent_ there would be one beast standing in its citadel of peace far above the eyes of the innocent people below. There was some form of irony in there which made him uncomfortable. He didn't believe in cliché destiny but this particular line of action seemed like the setup for some disaster which would be spoken of for centuries. The day a grimm was put in place to watch over man, and it used its position to hunt them to the last.

So what if it was intelligent? So what if it ' _evolved_ '? Ironwood began circling the beast as he was lost in his thoughts, ignoring calls for attention from his own soldier and Oobleck. _Even if it did not kill my men directly, some blood must have been spilled by its tooth or fang at some point. It carries sin on its shoulders and no guarantee of reason can be made. An ape may be able to sign, but the ape has a soul. It has want, need, willingness. What beast has that?_

Finishing his circle the General turned away, walking to the elevator to activate it with his own ID. _And even more, the beowolf packs are easy to turn aside as it is. Such a leader could make them a force of disaster on the countryside and even lead to them clawing on the walls from Vale to Vacuo._

The door opened and the general motioned for the men and beast to follow him inside. He took a position near the door, while the soldier stood in back and Oobleck on the right. The Beowolf stood in the middle, enclosed on two sides by Huntsmen and the other by proven skill. It was a defensive fielding, and the general was doing it on purpose.

As the lift began the ascent Ironwood spoke up to Oobleck sounding displeased but resigned. "What do you plan to do with it while it's here?"

"Examine it. Study it. Learn things researchers have been wondering for decades." Oobleck pulled open his scroll and the General had to bite his tongue to stop from rolling his eyes when the professor started to go into lists. "Find composition of the grimm masque, determine current physical traits, determine masque resistance, determine dust and magic resistances, examine specific evolutionary changes, see if it learns quickly or slowly when introduced to new forms of stimuli including but not limited to light puzzles new vocabulary and language interpretation-"

"Yes, that sounds rather comprehensive." Ironwood said, cutting the professor off. He was a bit wary of the entire 'see what it takes to harm it' bit since the information there could be rather terrifying. He saw the physical punishment the beast had taken from both Glynda and his own soldiers. Knowledge was power, so the information would be of use but… They had a real monster on their hands. "What of its ability to wield weapons?"

**Njala:**

The officer stood with four other SWAT personnel waiting in the executive room for their charge to appear. They had been given the general rundown, and had also been informed of some of the particulars of what exactly it was that they were going to be guarding. Not a lot of details had been shared, but enough of them were 'you are expected to keep all information in the highest of confidence' and 'any leaked information will be traced back to the source' and such. General 'Here's a secret and if you tell _anyone_ you'll be skinned alive' stuff that makes everything crystal clear as mud.

Njala knew, of course, but she doubted that the people with her would. This was rather convenient as she would be able to check up on the Beowolf's development and see what it had managed to get done with its scroll. It had cost a pretty penny to buy it, and Njala had been able to check that it had been used, but it was impossible to know whether or not the beastie was making much progress on its end. A little frustrating, but a necessary evil to make sure that she didn't leave a trail back to her. Such a thing would have ended with a lot of questions and background checking she didn't want.

So she was going directly to the source.


	21. Fireproof

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Beowolf surprises Oobleck with its lack of fear.

**Beowolf:**

Bright bays of lights far above were harsh against the pale tiles of one of the training rooms in the Amity coliseum. It was on one of the higher decks and the roaring cheers and jeers of the spectators out on the stands rumbled up through the trusses below. They were a bit distracting to the wolf as it sat on its haunches watching the Green-haired man pace side to side.

It had been a few days since festival had begun in earnest and the coliseum's racket was becoming nothing more than white noise; a soundtrack to the recent changes in the wolf's life. It had gone from scaling cliffs in the Valean outback to residing in an apartment in some sort of floating structure. It was quite a difference, though the wolf had adapted quite well. Being able to use its scroll uninterrupted for a while at a time, as well as being able to be tutored by **"Black"** made things a bit more comfortable. Seeing **"Red"** was still a bit awkward thanks to her initial clinginess.

Around the humans which had been posted as its security the beowolf was unwilling to look at the Shepherds' weapons. It had learned that the people that were around were doing it to keep it under control, as opposed to safe. Not that it was surprised, just that it was initially a bit unsure about the reasons for the constant presence.

The wolf didn't need to sleep or eat, and without direct lines of sight it found it difficult keep track of how much time was passing. Only the rumblings of the coliseum and the small courses on pictography defined time.

That, and the green-haired-man's presence.

At _very_ regular intervals the man would appear and try and observe something of the Grimm. It had taken the beast by surprise a few times before it came to realize that it was beneficial to play along. The man seemed to consistently have some sort of mechanism for the beowolf to take apart and figure out. It was generally a boon to the grimm since it didn't have to do much most the time, and it sometimes got these pieces of technology without understanding why exactly it was getting the present.

Right now, the green haired man was trying to show what exactly needed to be done in order to get the next little piece of the puzzle that was being constructed.

A rather sizeable chalkboard was being drawn on, chalk scratching pictures into the surface at rapid speed and the requirements were becoming clear slowly but surely. A rather dramatic image of the green-haired man protecting something small and spherical from the shadow of the beowolf. That seemed a bit odd to the beowolf as it hadn't really done anything to terrify the man aside from read silently for hours at a time.

Once the man was finished he produced – seemingly from nowhere – a small oval-shaped object roughly the size of half a human's fist. The wolf recognized it as an egg. Of _what_ in particular the beowolf didn't know. Grimm didn't keep any pets (at least Beowolves didn't), so the thing could have come from one of those cows humans keep alive as far as it knew.

" **Break** the egg." The green man said. Break was a verb that the Grimm knew, or at least had linked to 'attack', 'bite', and 'hit/punch/kick'. This was actually a bit clearer than the image thanks to the new word 'egg'. It would have to show that one to **"Black** " when it saw her next time. Maybe something showing a cow and a round thing dropping out of its… Mouth? Where?

Shaking itself of the consideration it stood up straight and watched the man put the egg on top of a small stand at the far end of the room. Apparently the short jog across the room was the only thing keeping it from the egg. That and the man standing right in front.

Once the man had taken a final sip from his thermos and relaxed the beowolf sat back a bit, raising up its hands to get ready for whatever the human was going to do. Then the man disappeared, reappeared somewhere in the beowolf's vision, disappeared, and then finally came to a rest in front of him.

Blinking twice to try and catch up, the beowolf leaned down to look at Oobleck, who was looking at it expectantly.

"First, **speed**." The man said, motioning to the egg. " **Run**. **Sprint**. Accelerate."

The wolf caught the gist, 'run fast break egg' was the queue of the day and it obliged. Crouching slightly to get itself some leverage, it sprung forward with all its strength, that initial burst sending it-

Before it had hit the ground from that initial bound Oobleck had already passed and was holding the egg up above his head, holding his other hand up for the beast to stop. It acquiesced, leaning back with one hand to catch the ground and slow it to a short and slippery stop.

It waited at that point for the hand to drop, but the man disappeared before the beast got the signal to move. Turning its head to try and keep up with the blistering place of the man but it was proving to be quite difficult. Shepherds all seemed to move more quickly than their charges, but the speed differed from a sprint to the near-invisibility of the man whom the grimm was facing. He was by far the fastest thing the Grimm had ever seen, followed only by **Red.**

There was a crack somewhere in the distance before the man reappeared, and by the time the beast noticed what was happening it was back to the side it had started, but against one of the corners. Oobleck appeared on the other side rolling his shoulders and rubbing his hands together. Now he held a scroll not unlike the Beowolf's and was making notes on it.

The beast shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the fact that at some point, against its will, it had been moved a fair distance from where it last remembered existing, to a wholly new point. It was more than a little bit disorienting.

"Again!" The voice called, the man making a circular motion with his hand towards himself. The beowolf tilted its head slightly, grumbling, before leaning back into its crouch.

It coiled up before leaping, and this time found that the man was staying in place. The initial burst of speed gave it most of its momentum, and with the strength of its kick-off it didn't normally need to exert that much energy to keep it going. Against the smooth floor there was little traction though so there was some awkward sliding of its feet against the floor. It maintained its course, however, and made a beeline towards the egg-jective.

**Oobleck:**

The examination wasn't direct, but it worked.

The doctor had been considering ways to observe the beowolf for differences for a while now. Observations if its normal living patterns gave up some information, but since it remained physically inactive while within the bounds of its house arrest there were few times to see how it adapted in structure.

Watching the beowolf leap from an advantageous viewing angle showed where the beast's speed came from in the first place: raw power in the legs. The 'animal' (Oobleck was aware of the controversy using such a definition for the Beowolf, but he ignored it in his notes) gained momentum by crouching like a human sprinter, or a pouncing cat. By putting all of its force into its legs it allowed it to dive forward fast enough it would look like a stride, when really it was more of a pounce.

The force had been enough for it to leap considerable distances, as he had seen when it leaped from the bullhead to the top of the cliffs out in the wilderness, but it seemed to struggle to get that speed on a hard surface.

_Adaptation of movement is based on native flora and fauna, possibly. When leaping it leans, as if to drive ends of feet into ground for lateral leverage. Here, floor is designed to take severe impacts and deflect blades. Standard acceleration would be impossible, has to substitute. Explains the clamoring._

The beowolf looked like it wanted to keep itself up by re-gripping the ground, but without the means to do so it was running much like a human would, not like a bounding animal. It took some of the speed off so Oobleck had to extrapolate the speed of the beast under its ideal circumstances of dirt and rock.

As the wolf passed the fifth mark that Oobleck had drawn out in his diagram he checked the time, watching as the stopwatch clicked over to the second mark. The man operated at a speed that others found quite unbearable, and he marked down the velocity of the beast after a quick calculation and then moved to return the beast to the starting point again.

He was doing something rather roundabout, but he decided that having a common objective over all these tests would be the best for the long-term. Having something to break for the probable technological treat that the prof- _Doctor_ had procured probably seemed like a pretty good deal for the beowolf. It was a conditioned reaction, and while Oobleck was sure the Beowolf would eventually become tired of the game, he wasn't quite sure just yet how long it would take for the beast to truly give up.

Grabbing the Beowolf under the armpits and turning with his legs, Oobleck was able to fully rotate the beast and send it back the way it was coming, pulling it through the air to the final destination. The entire process took forever in his eyes, even if it was quite fast to most humans (or a grimm for that matter), but by the time he was done the Beowolf was at rest at the starting point again.

Appearing back at his spot at the other end of the room, and motioned for the experiment to continue.

**Beowolf:**

Several rounds of sprints later, the beowolf getting farther and farther with each test, the Grimm found itself skidding to a stop without being moved back to its starting place. It was suspicious so it slowed down and stopped, keeping its eyes on Oobleck who seemed to intent on his scroll to really do anything as of current.

The Beowolf had been sprinting nearly continuously for half an hour at this point, but it wasn't feeling the normal wear and tear of fatigue that faunus or humans would. There were no muscles to really strain, and no bones to creak, so when it sat back on its haunches with suspicion it didn't do any stretching like a dog would do after such exercise.

Glancing past Oobleck the Beowolf could quite easily see the egg which was the objective of this entire exercise. The beowolf had been waiting for an appropriate time to try and launch an attack against it, but the entire teleportation issue had proven more pressing at the time. Now, however, it was curious as to what exactly the shepherd would do if it came close to the egg.

Walking over to the human and leaning on its forearms while walking in order to muffle some of the noise of its clacking claws, the beowolf tried to keep quiet until it was within pouncing range of the egg. It was surprised that when it got within about ten paces of the man that the thermos he kept with him extended into some sort of long club-like object.

" **Fire.** " The man said confidently, as if he was sure that the beowolf knew what the word meant. Of course it did, and while the beast hesitated for a moment it didn't completely stop, instead pausing just short of the man and tilting its head down at him.

Oobleck raised a brow before a gout of flame leaked out the bottom of his weapon in the general direction of the beowolf, who was quite unafraid of the fire. It went so far as to crouch down and hold a hand out to the flame. Oobleck immediately cut off the current of fire with a look of shock on his face, though the beowolf only grumbled in displeasure before sending a glare in the direction of Oobleck.

**Oobleck:**

For the professor who had been charged with keeping the Beowolf safe from itself and others, it was a fairly reasonable response to stop the beast from burning itself to death. The jet of flame that came out the bottom of Oobleck's weapon was designed to cling to things, burn continuously and hotly for a few seconds instead of simply scorching and leaving a burn (if a severe one). This beowolf seemed completely uncaring of that point, however, when it attempted to touch the flames itself.

Judging by the expression on the grimm's face (if you could call it an expression) this was not the right answer. Oobleck, trusting his gut, allowed a small amount of flame to arc from his weapon, and brought it up to waist height for the beowolf. He heard stories from RWBY about the beowolf's love for weapons and lack of fear for them, but didn't expect it to go this far.

The Doctor continued to be speechless when the beowolf casually dipped a hand down to take a 'lump' of flame into its palm. Raising it up so it could see it more clearly the beowolf splayed its fingers apart, and in doing so allowed the orange flames to shimmer from digit to digit with each small change of the breeze in the room.

Oobleck saw the flames eat away slowly but surely at the masque that covered the beowolf's hand, but saw that it burned rather slowly. The masque would turn black, then slowly chip off with the upward draft of heat from the fire. The process seemed to cause the beowolf no real discomfort, and it slowly closed its hand, the rest of the masque on its arm turning back before fading away as the fire was smothered.

 _Holy hell._ Oobleck thought, taking a little bit of a step back to reanalyze what the Grimm had done. _Old adage of the Huntsmen: Let not the beast walk after being maimed by blade, for it will come back bearing shields. Let not the beast escape while burned by blade, for it will make salve as a remedy. Let not the beast take the knowledge of battle into the darkness, for it will return with war-horns and drums for the kingdom. Supposedly call for genocide against Grimm of all kinds, to destroy all you come across. I didn't think there was a literal reason, true evolution._

But there it was, the 'beast'. A simple beowolf which should have been as easily killed by a blade through the chest as a trampling under the feet of its kin was playing with fire that had burned down dozens of its kind in combat before. It was astounding. It was terrifying.

And Oobleck was seeing it with his own very eyes.

 _What else could it do?_ He wondered as the beowolf leaned over him to knock over the egg. It couldn't quite reach, tragically, and it stumbled a bit when it over-extended over the man's head. Oobleck snapped out of it and the moment was lost as he reached back and snatched the egg out of mid-air and put it in his pocket, waggling a finger at the Beowolf.

"We'll try again another time. You have much to teach me, and more than enough time to try and out-maneuver a _human._ "


	22. Contrast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oobleck tries to convince others that the Beowolf is interesting, but useless. Meanwhile, Someone finds the Beowolf without meaning to.

**Oobleck:**

Sitting in the announcer's box with Port was hardly the most exciting part of the doctor's day, especially when they were so early into the prelims of the tourney. While there were many puns to be made (and tragically ignore) there often wasn't much to talk about.

The nature of these early rounds was a question of execution and team play. Not much commentary was needed for the average bout since the teams tended to be fairly good at what they were doing. Obviously one made more mistakes (or at least more severe ones) to lead to a loss, but that was beside the point. When it came to the upper-classmen and matches won in fractions of seconds by advanced thought and careful synchronized action – _then_ the sort of analysis he loved came into play. Tragic victories, epic defeats, mortal fear.

None of that was particularly present on the field in front of him as a team from Haven and a team from Vacuo traded blows far below.

Instead the man was mostly replying to Port's comments as he typed away at a text file below his fingers. He was making a short write-up for the invested parties concerning the Beowolf. Ozpin and Ironwood were the intended recipients, though he also thought that nobody would be too surprised if he sent a secondary note to Glynda.

The long of the short of it was that he thought everyone might be moving a _touch_ too quickly on the 'Grimm Doomsday' front. He had heard about the move to push RWBY into second year a semester ahead of schedule and was finding it a little difficult to rationalize given what he had seen of the Beowulf. It was a move he saw as both overly optimistic, and uncharacteristically forward for someone like Ozpin to make. If there was some belief that the kids would be directly benefitted by having the Beowulf present during their studies, or some sort of long-term plan to weaponized it… There was no real angle from which he could draw a satisfactory conclusion. And he wasn't going to go to Ozpin over it, not directly at least. He had great respect for the headmaster and at times that meant asking the wrong types of questions at the right time.

Experience taught him as such.

**Njala:**

"Officer Titania?"

"Fucking hell." Was the immediate response from Njala as she opened her eyes from the quick power nap she was taking next to the entrance to the host's chambers. She saw that one of the other officers stationed up there was leveling a slightly disapproving glare at her, some sort of worry etched into his brow. "Well shit you look like hell and I'm the one who just woke up. What's up?"

Picking herself back up from against the wall she rolled her shoulders back to work some of the stiffness out of her shoulders, a brow raised at him as she waited for his answer. He seemed intent on waiting for a moment as he peeked his head inside the room and looked from one side to the other. A moment later he returned and faced her again.

"It is unwise to be taking naps when our charge isn't under the direct attention of Professor Oobleck." The man said, some measure of displeasure in his voice. "Also, we are to keep humans out, as well as the charge in, and you cannot do that if you are completely unaware."

Njala silently considered what exactly the man was trying to criticize her for and had to admit that unlike her desk jobs, she probably wasn't going to be allowed to snack and nap whenever she felt that nothing was happening / she was bored / there was nothing to do. Point to SWAT guy. _Even if that's a gimme._

"I wouldn't be so worried, nobody can enter or exit except for a few high level Huntsmen and the guard on duty. Even if the thing was as smart as you or I, without a key it can't exactly do much aside from tear up some cushions and howl at things." She shrugged before pulling the door the man had left slightly ajar all the way shut. "By the way, if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing up here?"

The man paused for a moment as if to remember why he was where he was before shaking it off and reciting the announcement with the sort of candid soullessness that only comes with practice. " _A suspicious individual has been seen around Amity Coliseum's subsurface. We are to be alert to any signs of illicit activities on or off active guard duty and take appropriate action to deal with the situation and report it to Headmaster Ozpin or General Ironwood. Act with extreme caution and discretion to deal with the suspect or suspects. There is to be no panic in Amity._ "

"Do they think it's the guy in here?" She asked, scoffing at the idea. "They have the plain-clothes for things like this. They don't need us poking around where the civilians might get suspicious."

"It appears," he said, taking a small breath right in the middle of the sentence for some dramatic posturing, "That they are looking around high-security areas such as the automatic security nets and the droid control matrices. They appear to be searching for something that has been intentionally hidden away. That means sensitive data, control centers, and the charge are all possible targets."

Sighing and throwing back her head to let out a low groan of disbelief she stood at attention and pulled her handguns out from their hostler on her chest and let them deconstruct onto her hands as gauntlets. "Fine. I'll keep watch from here – with my eyes open that is—and radio out if anything happens. If anyone bears suspicious enough to warrant investigation, you will all know."

**Oobleck:**

As the bout in front of him ended the Huntsman decided that it was time to go through and proof his message one more time.

" _As requested by Ozpin I have spent the past three days performing physical examinations of the 'Charge' that is currently being held in the President's suite. The early results are promising; if only for the future possibilities if gaining an in-depth understanding of the mechanics of Grimm growth and development. Having the first willing subject of trials in the history of the kingdoms means that there could be an entire research team observing its every movement and research papers would be printed by the dozen by the end of the year._

_I digress – there is some real physical information that I have observed and it has lead me to a simple conclusion about Beacon Academy moving teams RWBY and JNPR into second year; that it is a hasty move with little merit to protect the students in question, or the greater community as a whole._

_To start there is a question of physical resistance.—"_

**Njala:**

Njala was fiddling with an inset in one of her gauntlets when she caught sight of a man walking up the steps from the restricted halls down below to the host's suite. Stepping away from the wall and trying to get a better look at the man she saw that he was studiously looking at the ground, hidden behind locks of hair.

"Excuse me sir, this area is off limits. You must return to the civilian levels." She called down to him, arms crossed and putting on her best glare. The man paused for a moment before looking up at her, his eyes narrowed to slits. She could see that the man had unusual ears poking up at the corners of his head. _A Faunus. Not unusual during the festival._

"Sorry ma'am." He replied, taking a step backwards. His eyes lingered too long on the bullet-proof armor on her chest and suspicion flared in her mind. "Must have taken the wrong turn on my way back. I'll be on my way."

Before Njala could say anything more the man was walking away, darting down a side corridor. As he ran she heard an odd crackling noise behind her, something like ice giving way under pressure. It was a very faint noise, and particularly bizarre, but it registered right on the periphery of her senses where she wasn't sure if she heard it, or imagined it.

And that _definitely_ meant that there was something there.

Opening the door and slipping inside she pulled it shut with her eyes on he room. She couldn't see the Beowulf but she guessed it was very possible that it was reading in one of the side rooms or something. She arched her fingers and one of the gauntlets reverted back into a revolver, which she brandished as she circled around the room trying to find the source of the bizarre noise.

Listening closely there was no real noise in the rooms. There was no clicking of heels or rustling of clothing, just silence and ambient noise. _What the fuck?_

**Beowolf:**

On the list of human nonsense that the Beowolf had been exposed to in its months of residing within Vale, this was taking a fairly high spot. Roused from its repetition by a bizarre noise and sounds of speech the Beowulf had shifted up slightly to see who had walked in. What it was met with was a particularly odd sight; a bunch of mismatched humans and Faunus. Well, mostly Faunus. And darkness.

The Beowulf was looking at a perfect black void that extended from one wall to the other, even though the light being emitted from its side of the room was still adding sufficient light for things to be easy to see. It was like someone had taken a slice of the world and sort of pulled it away. Not that the Beowolf thought of it quite so abstractly; more like 'Eh?'.

The human with brown and pink hair disappeared in a flash, leaving behind two Faunus. The two of them were armed, though the shorter of the two was more concerned with his scroll than anything else. The larger one was toting some sort of… Spinning blade?

It was a bit hard for the Beowulf to figure out. It was like someone put a chain link around a metal rod. The man was carrying it in two hands, almost like some sort of sword, but one of the handles was halfway up the rotating chain-link-spin bit of it.

The two talked about something in curt sentences, one of them saying something or other about taking people if they got found. The wolf was finding it all rather too fast for it to keep up with so it remained silent watching the pair. It could sense some sort of animosity from the two of them, the sort that keeps humans up at night from what the Grimm remembered from its time camping out on top of the human dormitories. They were exactly hostile either, but the Beowolf had no way of knowing whether or not they had seen it.

That was until the bigger one did. Then the room filling with noise and some confused shouts mixed in with fear brought to the fore that those people _may in fact_ not supposed to be there. And judging by the way that the man was brandishing his blade-object it was becoming ever _clearer_ that the wolf may _also_ be under attack.

Rising to its full height it stood quite a bit taller than the human who was carrying the blade and looking down on it the Grimm was feeling that the man was reconsidering many things. Regret filled the air along with the abject terror of the smaller man who was now trying to brandish his weapon.

How unfortunate for the would-be spies.

**Oobleck's report cont'd:**

" _The Beowulf seems to have a very well-adapted masque layer which is flexible enough that it could be called its new skin. From indirect observations of its new armor set, it appears that the material we call 'masque' can be applied by a Grimm in thin sheets that layer on top of each other not unlike how particle board is formed._

_This method is not dissimilar to 'scale mail' used by humans and Faunus of antiquity. It provides a robust defensive layer which is able to shrug off most blade-based attacks. They either slide off the Grimm's body, or they get caught when a notch in the armor catches and twists the blade. In neither scenario is the Beowulf visibly discomforted, and the damage is repaired not long after by some unseen process.—"_

**Beowolf:**

Ducking backwards the Beowulf was able to avoid a rather well-placed slash from the opponent's weapon. As he did the other Faunus drew a weapon and fired. The bullet from the weapon glanced off the beast's armor and lodged itself into the wall with a crackling noise. Batting the man's weapon away with a hand and forcing its way forward the Beowulf wasn't able to easily see what exactly was going on behind it, but with its focus on dealing with whomever these two were it wasn't too concerned.

The human shouted something to his partner, and the other one nodded a few times quickly before pulling out the scroll it had been using moments ago. Distracted for a moment the larger man managed to land a body blow against the beast, the machine in his hand revving high as the teeth of the blade got stuck in nicks and grooves it had made before stalling.

The Beowulf growled a throaty warning before lunging forward and grabbing the man by the shirt and tossing him into the smaller one. The two of them yelped in surprise at the sudden impact, as well as the lack of decapitated Beowulf. It reached down and pulled the blade from its chest and the chain spun around like a whip, launching itself from the contraption and into the sheet of black which was keeping one side of the room encased in darkness.

**Njala:**

Njala surprised even herself when she didn't curse profusely at reality shattering right in front of her.

While her eyes were trained on the room it was almost like a mirror had shattered into uncountable pieces, the image of the other half of the living room being unmade and replaced with what was really there; namely a Beowulf and the crumpled forms of two men in white uniforms tossed to the side.

Immediately after a chain flying through the air caught her attention, and she moved to the side with barely enough time to escape the trajectory of the metal. It whipped through the air near her head and crashed into an observation window, sticking in the thick plastic coating.

Blinking twice, she looked back at the lethal projectile before clicking on her talkie.

"I've got two trespassers who found their way into the Host's suite. They're incapacitated. Get Ironwood and Ozpin informed immediately." She turned down the volume on her talkie slightly as she approached the Beowulf and the two downed men, keeping one of her handguns at the ready, but with the barrel pointed at the ground. No need to startle the Beowulf or anything.

**Oobleck:**

_The exact nature of this evolutionary trait is hard to pinpoint. The reason for knowing the nature of the masque is that the Beowulf has developed a unique way of dealing with extreme heat caused by fire-aspected dust. When exposed to intense heat small strips of the covering burns away, leaving untouched armor below, which then starts to burn off. It is impossible to directly tell how much each of these strips is, but after thirty seconds of continuous burn, the beast was unscathed. No visual inspection showed significant difference between the torched hand, and the untouched one._

_The Beowulf has been exposed to fire-based dust once recently; during a sparring match with Yang Xiaolong. Due to scheduling conflicts I have not been able to contact team RWBY about this information, and until a history of exposure can be observed (or at least a comparison) it would be difficult to make any concrete statements about development.—"_

**Beowolf:**

Stepping to the side to allow the woman it recognized approach, the Beowulf lowered the weapon the man had been carrying to the ground, where it continued to crackle and make loud noises, the odd time actually jumping off the ground somehow. Eventually after a moment of eyeing it cautiously the Beowulf crushed it underneath a giant foot, leaving behind the crumpled wreckage of the weapon on the ground, the engine far past dead.

The woman was speaking again into the small machine on her shoulder, waiting for a response before barking something back in a stern voice. It was quite unlike the sort of person the Beowolf had come to expect from the bald one. She normally seemed quite relaxed, and never did any surprise seem to rock her. She was almost impossible to sense in the air amongst the pain and fear of the stunned Faunus.

Just quiet. That was what it reminded the Beowulf of most. Just like when beowolves had to sit still as death in the underbrush as a Atlesian ship flew overhead, just like when it was straining to hear the humans in the dormitories. It was quite bizarre.

The woman hefted the top man up and over, and when he tried to resist she grabbed the man by the side of the neck and forced him to his knees. Twisting his arm and forcing him to the ground with a knee she started patting him down. After a few seconds she held up one hand to the Beowolf, showing a short blade which she had found along one of the pants legs.

The officer waved the Beowolf over, and it complied, taking a step over to the remaining man and keeping an eye on him. He seemed to be unconscious, his eyes closed and mouth ajar with a split lip. While he was unable to resist the Beowulf copied the same pat-down pattern that the woman had used, starting along the waist and feeling along the legs and arms. It didn't know exactly what it was doing but assumed that it was a short search for weapons; at least that's what the woman's act seemed to show.

It found nothing of note aside from the cracked interface of the scroll he had been using as well as a small knife. It took both of them and put them aside, finding nothing else interesting on it aside from a small spiral object attached to a string wrapped around the man's neck. It was a small token, made out of some dull material which had been spun into a weaved mass.

" **Wait."** The woman said, shaking her head. " **Fire.** "

The Beowulf didn't understand at first, looking from the woman to the necklace in front of it, not getting the connection. It quickly understood when one of its claws sheared through the cord and the dull material suddenly came to life, going from gray to white hot.

Smelling dust in the air the Grimm realized the reason for the warning. The bauble wasn't glass or anything like that, it was dust. Very, _very_ energetic Dust. It had seen some in the items that the Green haired man had given it, usually from small machines used to generate small flames.

If this was supposed to do the same thing, it was _very_ clear what was going to happen next.

Snatching the bauble off of the chest of the now-screaming man, the Grimm tried its best to contain the coming flame by pressing its palms together to try and break the shape. From the little 'Lighters' it had observed, the dust could keep itself rather hot for quite a while, burning through paper and such rather easily. Only once it was crushed would the heat subside, and with a thing this big the Beowulf was pretty sure the amount of heat would be _significant._

As the dust went critical and started lighting itself on fire the Beowulf at first tried to grind it between its palms to break off edges and stop it from heating any more, but the lack of containment meant that a gout of flame launched out the side and clipped the Beowulf across the face where it arced around the back of its head, lapping at the sweet free oxygen of the room.

Roaring in frustration it closed the gap and its hands, about to just brute force it when the human stepped over and clapped her hands on either side of the beowolf's, the force of momentum through her gauntlets more than enough to smash the necklace into pieces along with the Beowolf's strength.

Lowering her hands, she muttered a low string of curses, a wave of relief rolling off of her and into the room before she nodded to the Beowulf and stepped back to the man she had left tied up on the ground. Ever so gently she pulled the necklace off of his neck and wrapped it around her hand for safe-keeping should she need to destroy it.

" **Fuck** ing **-fuck** ity **-fuck."** She said, and somehow the Beowulf understood.

**Njala:**

_Well isn't this some fine shit._ She thought as she stacked the two Faunus side by side with their hands and legs strapped together to keep them from any form of movement that could facilitate some sort of escape. _To think we'd have illusion-bearing suicide-infiltrators on the Amity of all things, poking around looking for who-knows-what._

She rolled her shoulders and turned her attention back to the Beowulf, who was now getting some symbolic assistance from one of the other officers. The fire that had struck it should have put a nice round hole through its head, but instead the armor it wore deflected the worst of the flames away, leaving only the edges of the super-heated flam against the surface. There was some visible damage, a nice little groove of black which was still flecking away into nothingness.

For it to eat an attack like that and live spoke volumes about its adaptation to deal with fire-based dust. The thing could probably could have spent a few seconds in an incinerator before it started feeling the heat on its neck. If it didn't roast through its eyes first, she guessed.

Her scroll beeped at her and she saw it was Ironwood. Picking up the call she outlined the attack in detail, short and to-the-point like she guessed the man liked it. Basically summed up as 'Unidentified assholes tried to fight Beowulf, the Beowulf had none of that, both of them were carrying around dust matrices which would have exploded into fireballs if they hadn't been contained'. He sounded rather concerned, but didn't ask many questions saying that he'd be there himself soon.

_What commanding officer goes to see the field of the battle first-hand? That's what photos, videos, and testimony of soldiers comes from. He hates the thing enough without thinking there's someone after the damn thing._

Still, if there was anything good that came out of this was the proof that the Beowolf was no slouch. The fact that it had kicked some ass on its own with those two infiltrators meant that it would be fine protecting itself should nobody be around to babysit. The fact that it actively tried to contain the blast as opposed to just get out of dodge, let alone save the man's life, meant that it was thinking about what was going on around it.

_A natural team player and a veritable tank._ She thought, collapsing her scroll and placing it back in her pocket. _With the right tools and some training, it might be able to do much more too._

**Oobleck:**

" _But after that, the Beowulf is hardly more remarkable than any other in terms of combat prowess. It possesses inhuman physical strength but lacks the force of Aura to strike as hard as a huntsman or huntress in training. It may be able to inflict damage thanks to its own inertia or momentum, but those two scenarios require complicated and route setups with definite execution to work; not something which commonly exists in the world of a huntsman or huntress. Adaptability is key, and while the Beowulf may able to adapt slowly to the tools of the enemy, it may not be able to do so quickly enough in the present, where team RWBY would find it most useful._

_What I mean to say is that I am unsure about the standing offer to teams RWBY and JNPR to move their learning forward. Academic reasons wholly aside, even if the students were truly skilled we have processes of acclimatizing students to their new world of danger. Moving forward their studies by months allows for gaps in their learning to form, and vital lessons to become lost._

_For that reason, above all else, I must advise against the current motion. One day the Beowolf might be a force of strength on the battlefield which may protect Vale and her peoples at the side of team RWBY. But that day is not today, and that day may in fact never come._

_With that in mind, I recommend we retract the current offer._

_-Dr. Oobleck_


	23. Friendly neighborhood Guild.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The great Guild of Braemor comes to town for the festival. The Beowolf learns who gave it the gift of learning.

**In Forever Fall:**

The contingent of the Braemor which were stationed far beyond the walls of Vale were patiently passing their time, the encampment whispering with the jokes and whimsy of roughly two hundred Huntsmen and Huntresses who had, for the first time in several months, just now been able to relax.

Many sat around camp fires or at roughly crafted benches they had crafted from fallen trees and such. Some were milling about to collect fuel for said fires or passing information from one end of the camp to the other. Large tarps were being erected over sections of the camp to keep some of the light rain off of the heads below.

When news from Vale hit the camp there was a sudden increase in activity and noise, a few whooping into the air with excitement. They would be stepping into civilization again, and be able to meet up with friends and family which would be gathered for the Vytal festival. Some hadn't seen their siblings for years, and now the alignment of calendars was going to reunite them.

Others were less vocal, watching the jubilation with silence, maybe smiling when a friend got the news.

Some would be staying behind, as was tradition.

In a slightly larger tent near the center of the camp a few men and women stood at a table, lists in hand as they kept track of names. Every once in a while a question would be asked, a curt answer given, and they would continue on.

"With the lottery over, forty men will be unable to enter Vale before the end of the Vytal festival." Said one of the officers, sighing as he set the scroll down in front of him. "That of course doesn't include those who can't enter the city."

"Is Glory on that list?" Asked another, brow arched. "If so we should move her off. She's getting stir-crazy in the wild. She'd do well with some time off."

"Replace her with who?" The first countered, tapping his finger down on the list. "The lottery has already been distributed, it's going to be hard to get someone who's willing to give up their ticket."

"I'll do it." One of the officers offered, collapsing his scroll and pocketing it. "I need two nights in Vale. She can take the other days if you're that worried about her Noël."

"Sir, you don't have to." Noël said, hesitating. "There is no reason for you to miss this year. I'm sure that there's someone else who could switch."

"Would you?" He accused, his tone level but intense. He crossed his arms and glanced to each hunter at the table. "Would any of us given the choice?" When none of them said anything he continued. "I'll take the rest of my days after Vytal has concluded. I have no urgent business which can't wait 'til after the students are done their tournament."

That matter closed, the room was quiet for a moment. Everyone truly wished to see the Vytal festival at its peak, even those who said they just wanted some R&R on real beds. If they were only going to be here a few weeks, it meant a lot for someone to give up prime time to another. It was a necessary evil of the lottery, the timing. They couldn't have too many huntsmen like those found in Braemor in Vale at the same time without some concerns about the possible draw of grimm to the region.

"Speaking of," he sighed, looking to one of the officers. "What has the draw been from the outskirts of Forever Fall?"

"The Nevermores moved out," Caul said scratching her jaw absentmindedly. "We have seen some Sharpies and one or two Valks. It looks like the Grimm are re-organizing already. None of the Goliaths have stirred, continuing their vigil from Mountain Glenn."

"Nothing particularly dangerous?" He asked, a hint of surprise in his voice. "Syvlie should have caught up by now at least."

"No, not even that one." She sighed, leaning on the table. "Something has kept them out for now. Another guild may have moved in and encountered them but it seems unlikely. It could be another particularly nasty grimm has gotten into conflict with it, but we'd have heard from out scouts about that. Or from Atlas at least."

"I want more men on the watch then." The man decided, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "A panic in Vale and reaction from Atlas is the last thing we need. The first contact will draw it north where we can stabilize it, then hopefully immobilize it for the duration of Vytal."

"Of course, sir."

**Beowolf:**

The Vytal festival's tournament was probably the best thing to happen to the beowolf in a while.

Standing on the observation deck at the Host's suite the beowolf could easily watch the battles that raged down below. A HUD being used had a few different views that allowed the Grimm to see the battle from a few different angles, as well as with a higher magnification than regular eyesight. From where it was, right at the top of the coliseum, there was a fairly good _view_ of the battles. Birds-eye really, just it was a few hundred feet up.

It had watched most the bouts since it had learned what the humans were actually doing down below. There had been a few more testing sessions with the green-haired man, testing things like how much it could lift, or whether it could repeat some motions with its hand. The human had prattled on about the purpose, but the Grimm had been understandably a bit uncomfortable with the description. "Advanced motor repetition and mimicry" was a bit of a mouthful.

For the past few hours though, it had pretty much been uninterrupted. One of the armed humans had been in and out fairly regularly over that time, the quiet one. She hadn't said anything to it since it had first entered and didn't really try to start conversation.

The beowolf had found that Red, Black, White, and Yellow all had a habit of talking to it in a rather expressive way. They all were trying to talk to it, and over time it had acclimatized to their emotional speaking and had found that it was pretty easy to understand the general sentiment. It wasn't an exact science, and there were times when its responses (in pictogram of course) seemed to illicit some confusion.

Something about this human, the armored one, made it think that it was trying to speak, but there were no words. It was quite frustrating to figure out, but every time it walked in there was a pause in the air like when Red or Yellow said something and seemed to expect a response. It made it want to reach for its scroll and draw something out, but there was no real way to answer a question that hasn't been asked.

Maybe something to do with the thing that had nearly exploded?

Grumbling to itself the beowolf stepped away from the display and walked back into the main living room to see that the woman was, yet again in the room. Pausing and peering at her more intensely it noticed that she was holding in her hand a red scroll not unlike its own.

In fact, now that it took a deep breath in through its nose, it smelled something which reminded it of the first time it found the scroll in the little knoll. The scent was faint, but definitely there. It hadn't noticed up until now as there was no reason to actually pay much attention to the scents around it. Being in the same room and already a bit suspicious made all the difference.

Approaching her directly it sniffed the air, looking at her as pointedly. She looked up into its eyes and arched a brow, the corner of her lips turning up just a bit. She held her hand out and curled her fingers back towards her. " **Scroll.** "

Humming to itself a moment the Grimm considered its options before handing over its precious technology. She took it into her hands and flipped it on its back, collapsing the item and running one of her nails along the seam that was made from the two ends coming together. The red-gray opaque surface glinted for a moment before a panel opened, revealing a small plaque.

She held the scroll up again for the beowolf and pointed to the small inset of metal with a finger.

Peering at it, the beowolf could make out the letters that the humans used. **"N . N."** It didn't recognize the collection of letters and looked back to her with some confusion.

She bowed slightly, pulling an ID card from her vest and holding it out to the beowolf. **"Njala Titania."** She pointed to the ID photo then back to her own face, relating the two together. Once it nodded she chuckled quietly, slipping the card back into her vest.

" **It's been a long time coming. Nice to meet you, Grimm."**

**Njala:**

Hours after her shift at Amity had ended, the officer was walking up to the front doors of Junior's club with a smile on her face. She was happy to start talking with the Beowolf, even if it didn't quite understand her role in everything. The fact that it seemed to be able to understand what she said was the real victory; she wouldn't have known quite what to do If it struggled with understanding her after months of training.

She had the advantage: being able to express through her aura made it easy to talk to a grimm, or to remain silent in its presence. Here she was going for the more talkative approach and for a shot in the dark it was working quite well.

The bouncers in front of her stepped into the doorway to block her way, puffing out their chests.

"VIP night ma'am, we're closed to the public." He said in a gruff voice, his eyes lingering on her arm. She was uncharacteristically dressed up in a red pantsuit and flats, the sleeves of her blazar rolled up on one side to expose her gauntlet, which glinted in the light. "We're booked until the Vytal Festival ends."

"Stand down boys," echoed a voice from behind them as Jin Xiong, the club's bartender, ascended the stairs behind them. "She's coming in. It's already sorted with Junior."

Smiling to Jin, Njala stepped between the men and headed down into the darkness of club. She threw a look over her shoulder at the backs of the men before leaning towards the redhead. "Are they going to be able to keep nosy people out?"

The bartended nodded, speaking a bit more loudly as they were getting into the range of the subwoofers which were pulsating in the bar proper. "They're some of my men, not Junior's goons. Last year there were no problems, but I've got some men on retainer in case we have any issues."

"Good." The darks skinned woman whispered, half to herself. Walking through a final set of doors the deep red of Junior's club blinded the pair for a moment. Once their eyes adjusted Njala rested her un-armored hand against her waist. Scanning over some of the heads she leaned back to Jin. "Is Riel here?"

"He came in a few minutes ago. He's at the bar." She hesitated for a moment before laying a hand on Njala's shoulder. Making sure that Junior nor the twins were nearby she leaned close to whisper a warning. "He seems like he is expecting you. I don't know how, but he mentioned you by name. Be careful."

Scoffing, Njala knocked away the hand gently. "When did you become a soft bitch?" The smile on her face betrayed the lack of malice behind her words. "I'll be fine. Don't let Junior catch you acting like that else he'll think you're losing your spine."

It was Jin's turn to scoff and roll her eyes, pocketing her hands and walking away, but not offering any rebuttal.

_Now where the fuck did that come from I wonder._

Making her way to the bar by trailing a fair distance behind Jin she kept an eye on the crowd in the club. She recognized a few of the people there, though a fair chunk of them didn't seem familiar at all. She made a mental note to mingle with a few of them later if she got the chance and didn't have to get the hell out of dodge for meeting up with Riel. She didn't think he'd toss her to the dogs, he didn't _really_ have a good enough reason if there wasn't an order out on her head.

_I guess he could do it to be an asshole though. Not that he is, just that I wouldn't be surprised._

When she finally got to the bar she saw more people that she knew fairly well. She didn't expect them to recognize her, and as she passed by none of them spared her anything more than a cursory glance that said more 'confusion' or 'who's that' rather than anything too dangerous.

Riel wasn't hard to find, the man took up a bit too much space to be missed. He was leaning on his elbows, eyes locked on the rows of alcohol behind the counter, fingers bridged. He wasn't tall, just broad enough to be mistaken for a wall, and in his plain jeans and shirt he looked like he could be a farm-hand. Or an ox. Either or.

Taking a seat beside him she ordered a drink from Jin, then drummed her fingers against the table. In the corner of her eye she could see Riel spare her a glance before chuckling.

"I almost didn't recognize you." He muttered, smiling. He waved his drink towards her to indicate the entire ensemble was unusual. "The last time any of us saw you there wasn't a square inch of recognizable human under that armor of yours. And here I thought you were some Atlesian 'bot with an attitude."

"As if my grand personality could be emulated on some tech." Njala gasped with mock offense. "I had to give it up when I got out of the _forest_ you see. Someone wandering around the crown lands in armor like that would have gotten a few long looks from the kingdom. All I have left is this."

She lifted up her arm to show the heavy gauntlet she had with her at all times, crooking her wrist so that Riel could see the bullets that were inset along the inside of the arm. She was armed, and she was making it clear through a small showing that she didn't come here all on good faith. Even if neither of them had spoken, it wasn't like this meeting was a surprise to either of them. Especially if he had been dropping hints to Jin.

"You won't have to use those Titan." He met her eyes, the joviality gone from his eyes. "I'm not ruining the shore leave of all these men for a rogue who's been AWOL for this long."

Hearing the confirmation of her safety from Riel's lips made Njala a little bit less hesitant, and the stress which had been weighing on her shoulders since she left Amity lifted, if only a little bit. "Good." Was all she had to say before taking her drink from the bartender and upending it.

"We've heard some rumors and seeing some odd things out in the wild. Would you happen to know anything about it?" Riel crossed his arms and leaned back on the stool, one foot resting on the rung of his chair, the other on the floor with his body turned towards her. It was his normal way of pressing for information; using his size to make it seem like there was no way out. It irked Njala a bit, but she doubted he was doing it on purpose. "Sharpies have arrived ahead of time, there are already three Valks armed and waiting in the western approach. That, and Sylvie is moving erratically."

"That…" Njala began, sucking some air through her teeth. "I don't know. I've been out of the loop for too long now. I barely know what Khaf is doing, let alone those Grimm. Is it bad?"

"Well, we're not sure." Riel admitted, glancing over his shoulder at the revelers on the dance floor. "If the inland Grimm are chasing us to Vale more swiftly than usual it probably means that the most recent cull wasn't deep enough, or that one of the other Guilds is struggling." Njala could see the man fiddle with a ring on his finger as he continued, "There is a good chance that if we see more Valks moving in that we will need to move away from Vale sooner than planned and cut this short. We're not in the business of risking open war between Atlas and Grimm, especially over Valean skies."

"What about Sylvie?" Njala pressed on, leveling a serious look at him. "That one has been hounding you all down for decades. A grimm that big doesn't 'just' disappear on you, and it's too smart to get lost in the mountains."

"Your guess is as good as ours, really." The man said, shrugging. "It's an unsatisfying unknown but it's all we have. Between the number of Guilds operating in the area, and the fact that we aren't sure what Sylvie is up to in the first place, it's worrisome. There could be a group fighting in another part of the continent right now with no idea what they're up against, or it could be making its way here as we speak."

"Hmm." She let his words hang as she took another sip, then relaxed back in her chair a bit. "Well, if you need some good news I found something promising." She smiled widely and ribbed him with her elbow. "I found a grimm with some sense."

Riel looked at her with a stunned look before raising a brow. "Really?"

"Mum's the word, I'm afraid. But if things work out you'll see for yourself before long." Her smile turned into a grin at his incredulous expression. "It's a good chance for the guilds. Best in a long while."

"Now _that's_ an understatement if I've heard one." Riel scoffed, shaking his head.


	24. Diplomatic Solutions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ozpin meets with Riel, leader of the Braem.

**Blake:**

Even when leaning back on the soft plush of the couch in the Beowolf's room with a cool drink in hand, the Faunus couldn't find it in her to relax.

She and Weiss were seated on the couch watching a bout between two teams from different academies. It was the last set before their own match, and nerves were settling into each of them. Blake herself had been cracking the knuckles of her index fingers and thumbs on and off for about ten minutes now, and Weiss was starting to fidget in her seat. Yang, who was seated on the floor, didn't seem that worried, and leaned back against the couch with her head resting against her interlocked fingers. She was the picture of cool, which was nice. Having one person with a bit of confidence going into this was good.

 _Not that I don't think we can win._ She stood from the couch when the final member of one of the teams got kicked out of the ring, then walked towards the sink to grab another drink. _But this is the first time in a long while we'll be facing trained opponents… Real huntsmen and huntresses._

Filling her cup with some soda she thought she might as well check up on Ruby. Walking down a short hall to where the observation deck was, she peaked around the door to see what the two were up to. When she had left Ruby here a while ago she had been hugging the Beowolf, but now the teammate was seated on the beast's shoulder, her head tilted up to the screen which showed raw footage of the stadium. She was watching the teams pick themselves up off the ground in exhaustion and the ring reset.

Front-lit from the light streaming in the windows of the observation deck, Blake could make out the silhouette of the Beowolf. This was only the second or third time she had gotten a good look at it since the team showed up at the apartment today, the rest of their time having been occupied with practice. It looked different to her, felt different.

Before, the wolf had looked like a monster. Some armored evil from one of the books she had read, a silent _thing_ which would creep up on you when you least expected it. With a hunched back and bowed arms it was like the unnatural lovechild of a beowolf and a goblin. But now, it looked like an _animal_. No longer did it have low spurs on its arms and legs, no longer did it have plates like chitin on its chest and back.

 _Now_ , she thought, _now it looks like an animal._

She had to smile to herself at that. An animal was better than a Grimm she supposed. She leaned against the door frame and saw the beowolf huff in disapproval as Ruby began rocking side to side at high speed, shouting something about their match. She went a little too fast and looked like she was about to fall right off.

The beowolf took an awkward step to the side to try and right Ruby but was a smidge too slow. The young huntress fell right off its side, but was caught before hitting the ground by a pair of talons snatching her cape. She let out a squeal as she bounced back up after coming within inches of bouncing her face off of the floor, something which would have hurt quite a bit from that height, and also looked sort of strange at the beginning of the fight.

Blake rushed forward, though by the time she got there the Beowolf had already righted Ruby and grumbling in a sort of chastising manner.

"Can't even catch a break from a grimm, can you?" Blake joked when Ruby noticed her and smiled sheepishly. "You'd better not do that during our match, Weiss isn't going to like pulling you out of the snow if you face-plant on an ice stage."

"I would _not_ do that!" Ruby said indignantly, crossing her arms with a faux puff. "Your lack of faith is disappointing Blake."

Snorting at Ruby's upturned nose, Blake turned to the Grimm. "Is she causing you pain? If she gets too excited, you can just ignore her. We do when she's too deep into some ice cream or going on and on about… Something."

"Oh whatever, I know you guys find my personality endearing." Ruby said haughtily, leaning on the Beowolf and placing a hand on her hip. She tried a cocky smile, but the Beowolf shifting caused her to nearly fall for the second time in less than a minute. Catching herself, Ruby jabbed an accusatory finger at the wolf and cried "That time was on purpose!"

Huffing dismissively, the beowolf held up its scroll and seemed to roll its eyes (impressive for having no pupils). Holding it out to Blake, the Faunus stepped forward and took it into her hands, glancing over what she expected to be a pictogram. Instead she saw the basic text editor on the scroll, with a single pair of words.

"It's Fine." She read aloud, a questioning tone in her voice. She then looked to Ruby and held the scroll out to her. "Did you do this?"

"Wha-?" Ruby asked, then grabbed the Scroll and looked at it. "Ohmygosh its first words!"

Blake felt like cutting in, but felt a bit bad for it when Ruby wrapped her arms around the beowolf's arm and gave it a squeeze. She raised a hand to say something when Weiss and Yang walked in, but an over-excited Ruby beat her to it.

"Oh my gosh guys we're like four moms and our kid just spoke for the first time in like a _million_ years!" The huntress said in one long gush, and continued nearly without pause; "We should celebrate – !"

"Right," Yang said, cutting in. She held her hand up to Ruby before looking to Blake, "What's going on?"

The look of utter devastation on Ruby's face after being shot down nearly caused Blake to laugh, but she bit her tongue to prevent any further bruising of their teammate's ego. "Someone must have changed something with the Beowolf's scroll."

"What do you mean?" Weiss said, almost pointedly ignoring Ruby, though Blake chalked it up to nerves more than being rude.

"Well," Blake began, holding out her hand for Ruby to hand over the scroll. Ruby acquiesced, and Blake brought up the basic writing program. "Someone must have installed some macros. All the keyboard keys have been replaced with combinations, meaning that the beowolf doesn't have to memorize letters or anything."

"Something that wasn't installed on there before?" Yang asked, her brow raised. "You said that there wasn't anything fishy with it aside from some installed programs for the beowolf. Like the picture software, some schematics…"

"That's right," Blake shut off the scroll and opened the memory card slot on the bottom and popped it out, holding it up for the others to see. "This has all the custom stuff on it, and I checked everything over on my scroll a while ago. The only thing on it was the program and some instructions with blueprints. But now there are custom settings in Scrivener."

"That _does_ seem a little high tech for it." Ruby admitted, scratching the back of her head. "So who did it then?"

The four teammates looked to each other, then to the Beowolf, who stared back quite blankly. After a moment of silence the group huddled up together, and Weiss whispered "Are we sure it's any smarter than your average dog?"

Before anyone could reprimand her for the under-handed rib, the group of four found themselves being corralled out of the room and into the hallway with the grimm gently pushing them towards the door. The sudden move surprised them, but none of them put up much of a fuss when they noticed it was grabbing its cloak.

When they were standing in front of the door, now ready to go thanks to the sudden command to exit given by the grimm, each of them gave it a small smile and said goodbye. It nodded to each of them, and knocked on the door, which opened.

Blake recognized the woman opening the door as one of the soldiers who guarded the Beowolf on rotation. She and the rest of team RWBY had been told that they handled who was able to visit the Grimm, as well as provided security in case someone tried to get inside the Host's suite. She felt like asking the woman if she knew what happened but before she could do so she could hear Oobleck's booming voice over the intercom.

" _Team RWBY,"_ it began, in a sarcastic tone. " _If you could please make your way to the designated staging area in the next five minutes, it would be much appreciated. Your match begins in ten."_

**Njala:**

_And there they go…_ She thought as team RWBY made a mad dash for the elevators to make their timed bout. She had to smile, if just a little bit, at their enthusiasm. She had worried for a while about whether or not the kids would actually show up, and was pleasantly surprised when she rotated on duty. _Maybe those four mean something to it. Something a little more important than tacit observation._

Clicking on her walkie she let the other security staff know that team RWBY were out of the room and leaving the floor, then entered herself. The beowolf was waiting for her with its robe on, standing in the middle of the room with only its red eyes visible from under the dark fabric.

" **Pretty terrifying.** " Njala joked crossing her arms. " **If I was a kid maybe.** "

The beowolf grumbled before pulling the cloak's hood off, but it kept the cape on. It made a guttural growl, before stepping forward.

" **Sorry guy, but you're not going to be able to watch from the stands."** She chided, raising her hand low and splaying her fingers in a 'stop' sign. **"You've got a good enough seat from here as is. They'll be fine."**

When it didn't seem convinced she continued, picking her words carefully as she knew the room was probably bugged after the altercation with the Fang members. **"It's not safe for you to be somewhere that might let someone get to you. You could be a target."**

This seemed to mollify the Beowolf, thought Njala couldn't be sure. It stepped back and let out a long breath, one that made it sound resigned.

 _If there's one thing its really good at, it's grunting and sighing._ Shaking her head she pointed to the hall which lead back to the observation deck. **"Come one, let's see how they do."**

Nodding, it walked silently, Njala following closely behind.

**Riel:**

The commander of the Braemor watched the floors tick by intently as the elevator he was riding in made the short ascent to the headmaster's quarters in Beacon. He was fiddling with one of his cuffs, fingers absentmindedly clicking the cufflink, the steel clicking with each motion.

He wasn't particularly fond of these little meetings, but he didn't feel like putting this off any further. Not that he had much time, what with his giving Glory the lion's share of his time in Vale. Even if he didn't enjoy meeting with the Headmaster – in part because it was a waste of time – he didn't plan on waiting to the last minute.

When the door opened in front of him he took a deep breath before stepping off and into the pale light of the office. He noticed Oobleck was standing with his back to him, facing out towards the window. Nobody else was in the room, which was odd considering that the last time he was here Glynda Goodwitch had been near omnipresent.

But that was eight years ago now. It wasn't often that the Vytal festival came to Vale after all.

"Sir." Riel said, stepping out of the elevator and approaching the desk. "A moment, if you would."

Ozpin turned, his hand curled around a mug as he normally did, and regarded the Huntsman with weary eyes. Rield hid his surprise, preferring to hold his hands behind him in military style and pretend he didn't notice anything amiss. His eyes were mimicking the cool detachment of Ozpin's own, and the headmaster's eyes lit up just a bit when he recognized it.

"Of course Commander, I can spare a few minutes every decade for your Company." He said, approaching his desk and sitting down, wrapping his hands around his mug. "I hadn't heard that your troops were in the area quite yet. I'm always surprised that you can move so many people so quickly."

"From what I've heard, you and yours have been more preoccupied of late with other things." Riel commented. "Naturally, we have had some help from people on the inside. The Club is putting up many of our men and women in the city right now."

"Any hard numbers for me?" Ozpin asked, though Riel knew the man already knew the answer he'd give.

"Enough." Was the simple answer. "The largest contingent is in Forever Fall, and there is a recon net covering the southern and eastern approaches."

Ozpin nodded, drumming two fingers against the surface of his desk. "I assume that you have questions of your own about our friends in the sky?"

Riel was silent for a moment, but tilted his head slightly forward for Ozpin to continue. "It is _unusual_ to see so many Atlesian ships so far from their port of call, yes."

"Unfortunately," Ozpin sighed, taking a sip from his glass, "I cannot answer that curiosity. Some measure of intrigue is currently at play in our city and General Ironwood is taking precautions."

"I hardly mind Oz." Riel smiled, though the expression seemed forced at best. "I'll leave the details of Atlas' foreign policy for another day. On more seasonal note, I have the short list of players for the exhibition match."

"You're not doing it this year?" Ozpin looked a bit surprised. "Are you sure that's wise?"

Chuckling, Riel shook his head. "I've done it for years, someone else can pick up the slack. I'm an old man, someone eventually needs to take on the duties of an aging statesman. Even if there is no 'state'."

"Even still," Ozpin insisted. "At a time like this having unknown huntsmen performing in the exhibition matches is a security concern. Ironwood will object – and I'm not certain why he hasn't already demanded that you not be allowed to perform this year."

"If he has any concerns he can come to the camp." Riel said, pulling a red scroll out from his pocket and opening a small text file on it. Expanding it so that a single line of text was legible to Ozpin. "Which you know as well as I that he will avoid if at all possible. And as for the list," Tapping the screen he smiled. "The short list is one person. A young woman named 'Glory'."


	25. Aegerter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone hunts down White Fang members in Forever Fall, Blake meets with an expert in Grimm.

**Glory:**

"Thanks, I'll be good." Glory said, smiling at the woman who had helped her reach a box of granola bars down from a shelf. She was relieved that she had found someone nearby who was willing to help. Last time she had to traipse about looking for assistance someone had decided to put back all the things she had managed to get down on her own. That was an extra half hour tacked onto shopping she _really_ hadn't been interested in spending.

The lady hesitated before smiling politely and walking away. Once she was gone Glory rested her right foot against the basket she was holding her groceries in and gave it a solid kick. The black basket slid easily across the linoleum with a satisfying swish before grating to a stop three feet away. Following behind it with a consistent set of soft punts the woman made swift time over to the checkouts where there was a small line.

She tapped her foot while waiting to set her basket on the belt and ignored the odd look that was shot her way. Even in Braemor there were a few people who weren't used to seeing her without her armor on, and those people tended to be surprised that she managed in the patrol rim as she did.

When she got a chance to put her stuff up she hooked her foot under the basket handle and lifted it up and onto the belt. It was hard to do it in the cramped space, but she was able to manage it without having to stretch too much. Bringing her left knee to her chest she was able to bring her ankle up high enough to plop the basket upright.

 _Small victories._ She mused to herself before returning to tapping her toes on the ground, her shoes clicking neatly against the tile. Hopefully she could get back to Junior's before sundown.

**In Forever Fall**

Standing with their foot on the chest of a White Fang marauder a Vanguard lit a cigar and placed it between their lips. The man was grizzly, his face coarse and dirty, his red beard darkened by the combined effects of ash, sweat, and dirt. He furrowed his brows as he took a long drag before puffing it out through his nose, the soreness in his chest causing a twinge of pain to shoot up his side. He ignored it, or at least tried to as he leaned further forwards.

A pealing scream broke down into a mewl when he laid his full weight against the marauder's chest, the bruised ribs no doubt an unpleasant sensation against the lungs. Her blood was indistinguishable against the red foliage of the forest, the effect blending her into the ground. The vanguard looked down and met the woman's eyes before tapping the ash off the end of the cigar and onto the wet soil beside her head.

"Iee give ye tree seconds'a repeat what y sed a me." He warned, his accent thick. "Ee lass don gat ya troat unde er boot but ii do. Bes speak spee'ii."

The woman grimaced as she cast her eyes between the man who had her literally under his boot and the armored malevolence which stood beside him. She couldn't see the 'ee lass', only the metal arm which hung out from under the cloak they wore.

The dwarf atop her had singled her out of the trees above and knocked her and her company out with a hefty kick far beyond his size. She didn't know where the others were, if they survived or if they had been caught in the same bare-knuckle brawl that had left her with a broken nose and what felt like a collapsed lung. She hid her pain well, she thought at least – especially considering the man's less than gentle care of her broken collarbone.

"Easy," The hooded one said, laying her hand on the man's shoulder. "I can do the rest."

The man grunted before leaning back and stepping away. "Su yasel."

Kneeling down on one knee the hooded woman inspected the marauder from behind the shadow of her cloak. She said nothing for a moment before shifting forward with one hand out and placing it on the woman's throat. Not too heavily that the woman would have any more trouble breathing, but with enough force that it was uncomfortable.

"Tell me, do you want to live?"

The question was simple, but for some reason the Marauder found herself choked. In her mind, above all other things, above the sensation of pain and the hatred of her opponent was the question, and a choice.

Do I answer, and when I do, speak the truth.

Those were her choices and in this clear moment, above the pain and ignoring responsibilities even after death, she choked out the word, quiet as death.

"Yes."

When she answered it was like a salve, and she felt immediately better. No longer was the sensation of her lungs being crushed overwhelming her senses. No longer was the cold creeping in from the loss of blood taking the spirit out of her voice. She felt calm, at peace, and warm.

"Good." The hooded woman crooned, leaning forward and brushing the dirtied hair out of the woman's face. "Then you will come with me, and follow the man to the camp, and wait for me there. Will you not?"

"I will." The marauder replied, the act continuing to sate the pain. Her mind was too clouded with the anesthetic of words to realize that the influence was unnatural, and that the hooded woman had successfully slain all of her comrades leaving only her alive to be controlled. That might come later, with the clarity of pain returned to her bones. But for now, she was willing.

The man turned back to the hooded woman and cleared his throat. "A ye shore is is a gid idea?"

"It will be fine. She will resist going into shock until you get back to the encampment. If she awakens you should be able to suppress it with your Aura." Now that the White Fang member was under the influence she was willing to remove her hood, to reveal the bald head of Njala. "Riel isn't going to be happy with this, but I want to know what their plan was at Amity."

"Te Braem do't ge in wi' Kindam business, ye kno tha." The Vanguard replied, shaking his head.

"That's why we're going to keep this a secret." Njala replied. "They somehow found an illusionist and have broken past the high security infrastructure Atlas used. If they can do that, they have become quite a bit more dangerous than anyone expected."

"Ae…" The man reached down and picked the woman up, slinging her over his shoulder. "I'y get 'er te Jophiel, see what ee can do."

"I'll be there in a few days." Njala scratched her scalp before pulling her hood back up. "But are you sure you can be all the way out here without raising any concerns, Ghato?"

The man turned and smiled a toothy grin. "They're used ta me lateness. I'y be fine."

"Even so, Good Luck."

And the two parted ways.

**Beowolf:**

Even if the theory of what the woman had explained to it days ago wasn't exactly settling in, the Grimm absorbed all it was seeing from the bouts like a sponge. As it didn't know the fatal human flaws of 'sleep' or 'hunger' it could sit in a corner and watch the matches completely still for days at a time. The only times it really had to move were when Oobleck came along with an experiment (something which was quite rare given his key role as MC) or when the woman came by to talk. Or more accurately she spoke at it, the Beowolf still lacked any efficient means of communication aside from its crude iconography (something which was apparently far too slow for the woman as she rolled her eyes when it tried to respond).

The 'theory' she had been talking about made sense in a 'big concepts' sort of way, though it lacked a lot of punch. From what it understood she was talking about human or faunus which were meant to survive enemies far greater than them. To stall or maim grimm that would otherwise overrun a settlement, basically. While the bit about saving humans from their mortal enemies wasn't exactly the most relevant information, she had elaborated on how it might be able to fight differently.

As Grimm such as the Beowolf develop defenses naturally there wasn't much conscious thought going in to how it might be able to use them in the future. When it stopped the dust grenade from going off it was a reaction, something it _knew_ it could do, not that it had necessarily planned. But with the woman, **Njala** she said her name as, maybe it could do more with it.

She had already explained – though it didn't much make sense – how humans managed their feats of strength. The ordeal of listening was made easier by the way she could force words to make sense, though that didn't mean that the Beowolf had internalized the finer points of auras and semblances.

For now, it understood that its allies – Red, Black, White, and Yellow – all had auras of a color that it couldn't see, as well as special abilities born of it. Red was particularly fast, Yellow was strong, Black could create clones, and White could create… Magic circles.

It had seen as much during the fight that the four of them had in the coliseum between them and another group of four. Red and White made sense to the Beowolf because they were scales of normal abilities of humans. Back when it saw Yellow for the first time it saw her launch a human machine which was several times larger than her and made out of steel. That was acceptable, and so was the fact that Red could move so quickly.

The magic circles and the clones were more difficult for it to understand. It was a practical issue, somewhere between the fact that it had no measure for what a 'clone' was, nor what a glyph meant.

What was important, or at least what it grasped, was that if it were to act as a " **Vanguard** " as **Njala** had described, there would be more chances to see the world. That, and it would be stronger, something it appreciated. Its fascination with these battles had been in a studious capacity, and it had been learning all about how to use a few of the weapons, even though some of them looked either too complicated to use, or did something strange.

The man, **Oobleck** , said something about weapons the last time they had a meeting, which was a while ago. The Beowolf was quite interested in that, even though it was taking quite a while to actually start.

A noise on the other side of the room from the corner it was sitting in caught its attention and it lifted its head up. Tall as it was, it could have seen without moving, but the humans and faunuses tended to move their heads a lot, so it copied. It could see that Yang and Ruby were arguing quietly about something while Weiss looked on.

Standing up quietly the beast lumbered over, cloak getting caught on the corner of the coffee table in the living room. It took another step before it realized that it was going to topple over everything sitting on it, including its scroll.

Carefully stepping back and pulling itself free it decided to click on the scroll, reaching over with a long arm to flick it open. Displayed for it immediately was a feed of the empty coliseum floor, the ring being maintained while they set up for the 1v1 ceremony.

Closing the scroll again and flipping it over to make sure it was clean (something it had learned from Blake, keeping tech free of dirt) it wiped off some of the crumbs which had stuck to the back while it had been sitting next to the girls' food. It ran a short claw along the crease around the insignia on the back, fishing for anything, and flicked the detritus away before setting it back down. It didn't exactly put much time into keeping the thing clean, the fact that it was useable being enough for the Beowolf.

Approaching the trio and sitting back on its haunches it watched the three discuss something for a while, their expressions changing wildly as they discussed how they were going to do something. It waited patiently for one of them to give it some sort of explanation, but none was forthcoming.

Eventually it snuffled and Weiss looked up, smiling a half-smile. "Ah, sorry, **you're** so **quiet** sometimes!"

"Yeah, for a **monster** you sure do manage to get around unnoticed." Yang piped up, though Ruby scowled at the word usage. "Sorry we've been **ignoring you** , just been trying to figure something out before the singles set starts."

The beowolf nodded, tilting its head slightly.

"The fights now are one on one, so we need to decide who is going to compete." Weiss clarified. "It's probably going to be **Yang** , I'm not feeling too well after getting **blown** up last match."

"I'm just **worried** that Yang might not be well-rounded enough for everybody in the finals." Ruby said, sighing. "I mean, **Pyrrha** is going to probably be in there, and we all know how good she is."

"To be fair, none of us are doing that well **against** her." Weiss admitted with a bit of a grimace. "Only person I know that's actually **bested** her was the **Beowolf**."

All three looked at the Beowolf who looked between them with some confusion, not getting the joke. Yang was the one to show pity first, smiling and looking like she was about to explain it when a knock on the door caught their attention.

Through the door stepped the members of the other team the Beowolf had seen before. Two young men with yellow and black hair, and two women with orange and red hair. It knew the red haired one as the one it had encountered in the forest a while back, and the other ones from when it was locked in the large room with the huntsmen after being captured in Vale.

They were followed in by **Njala** who had her arms crossed and leaned against the door. She looked bored, but as usual the Beowolf could not read her emotions to see what she was feeling. Far more prominent was the Yellow haired man who seemed like he was still quite scared of the beast, an emotion it hadn't noticed recently given the company.

The group started chatting again, the orange haired one immediately started talking boisterously with the others, her expression a great grin. As she started to speak the red haired one walked up to the Beowolf and pursed her lips, head slightly down-turned at the ground before looking up at the wolf's face.

"I'm sorry that I attacked you so long ago." She said quietly, though the rest of the huntresses and huntsmen quieted with the admission. "My name is Pyrrha Nikos." She bowed slightly, a move which surprised the Beowolf.

The bow was a show of deference from humans, or something like that. To be on the receiving end of one as a Grimm was quite strange, and it didn't quite know how to react. It inclined its head in return, something it had done for a while know when shown respect or greeted in any way.

"Say, does it have a name?" Orange asks, turning to look at Ruby, who shakes her head. "Well that's dumb. It should have a name."

"Well if might have one, but it can't exactly talk." Yang replied, shaking her head. "Though it might just be some growls or something Grimm-y."

"We could give it a new one!" Ruby says, clapping her hands together. "I vote for…" She pauses dramatically. "Wolf!"

"That's a dumb name." The black haired man says in a deadpan. "Choose a different one."

"That is indeed a pretty lame name." Weiss agreed, shaking her head. "I think we could do better than that." She held up a finger. "What about Sinclair?"

The beowolf heard the name and grumbled, shaking its head and looking pointedly at Weiss, who deflated.

"Wow, shut down." Ruby said, whistling. "Who's dumb now huh?!"

The group laughed, and the Beowolf snuffled in amusement. In the corner of its eyes it could also see **Njala** who was smiling herself, though she seemed to hide it when it looked over to her. Instead she nodded her head towards the group, motioning for it to pay attention.

Nodded, turning back to them and listening as they joked about the sorts of crazy names they could give the beast, dumb names, good names, crazy names… The beowolf appreciated their effort, even if it was a little insulting to be called 'Bubble'.

**Blake:**

There wasn't a lot of time before Yang's possible bout to spare, but the faunus was willing to risk it.

Riding on the light rail which normally took workers to the industrial region of Vale, Blake was sighing. Her eyes were focused on the tower and mall complex which made up Lac Logain. She had happened upon a few names when she was reading up more specifics on Grimm, and one stood out.

 _Gige Aegerter_. The name stood out like a sore thumb among the names listed. It was foreign in a way. Very unlike the standard names of Remnant the scientist did not appear to have any reference to color in her name. That alone was very strange, but more importantly she was involved in a rather small task force dedicated to Grimm research. _Most in-depth research into the Grimm was abandoned years ago due to the impossibility of capture. I wonder what they've learned?_

And that information was exactly what she was interested in. It's not that she distrusted the Beowolf or anything, there was simply so much they _didn't know_ about what it was. What it was thinking, how it lived, what it could become, all of that was behind a haze of unknowing. A particular fear was that it might just… Die.

She recalled one of the first lessons with Professor Port, the one where he had the boarbatusk. Despite the fact that Grimm couldn't be sealed for too long the professor was able to bring it all the way to class. This in and of itself could probably be explained by some sort of time limit but Blake wasn't really willing to leave that to chance. The Beowolf had been ostensibly locked in Amity for a couple weeks, and at this point it had been a prisoner of Atlas for around a month. She didn't know if even Ironwood expected the Beowolf to live this long under current conditions.

The few times they had seen the Grimm since it was back in the kingdom it seemed calm, and it didn't look like it had tried to break out of the room… _But I never taught it how to talk about emotions. Would it 'feel trapped'?_

As she pondered the train slowed and pulled into the station which was attached to the complex. She stepped out from the car and looked up into the vaulted ceilings. Massive banks of windows let light stream in and light up the bare concrete of the walls. She was facing towards the escalators that lead up to the main floor of the university, wood accents contrasting heavily with the concrete all around. It looked like proof that Atlas had invested a fair amount of money into this facility, or at least that was the rumor.

The receptionist at the front desk directed her to an interactive map which told her which room she'd find the researcher on. Room 5168.

Two staircases and a couple of bridges that crossed the mall below later she was looking at a plain maple door with a simple steel plate with the name 'Aegrter' inlaid. There was no door handle so the Faunus knocked twice before stepping back towards the railing behind her. While she waited she glanced over her shoulder at the small crowd below which was moving around the food court, the smell of take-out pizza wafting up from a stand.

The university was pretty enough, though strangely located. Where Blake stood on a ten-foot-wide 'sidewalk' she was actually forty feet above the mall floor below, and could easily see all the way down. The fifth floor was the second topmost layer, and there was yet another floor above which had even more classrooms. It was quite spectacular in size all things considered, though she absentmindedly wondered why there were so many nooks and crannies around which someone could stand on.

The door swung open and an older woman stepped out, her eyes trained on a clipboard she was scribbling something on. Before Blake could say anything the woman lifted her head slightly and met the Faunus' eyes, nodding her head to the doorway. "We can talk inside."

The woman then turned on her heel and continued to write, stepping back into the office without another word. Stepped quickly in before the door closed on her, slipping in just before the pneumatic lock hissed back into place. Trying to keep up with the woman's brisk pace she cast a glance over her shoulder to see that the door was smooth on this side as well.

 _Now_ that _is scary._

"It's a security measure." Aegerter called from in front, somehow seeing Blake's expression (or at least predicting it). "It's to stop people from getting in, or things getting out that _shouldn't_."

Though her words were ominous the woman spoke with some natural levity which was meant to ease any of Blake's fears, which Blake appreciated. She had been a bit nervous ever since she set foot on the train to the University, something she was only noticing now. Maybe it was because there were so few people around here when the Academy was bustling with activity.

Eventually she found herself seated in a small lounge area just off the main hall with a door that lead into some dark room. A couple of chesterfields faced each other over a gnarled wood coffee table which had a glass top set over it to rest glasses on. She sat diagonally across from Aegerter, the researcher leaning back into the corner of the couch and haphazardly setting her clipboard on the table. It slid across until a corner bumped into Blake's knee. She looked down and saw that the paper had her Beacon ID photo clipped to the top left of a two-page form. Flipping the pages she saw that most of it was filled out already, even though they were fields she was supposed to write in.

"While I was excited to hear from security that a Huntress was coming to learn about my research there are some regulations around these sorts of interviews." The woman sighed, pointing with her hand to the form. "Normally people call ahead for these sorts of things, people doing postgraduate research usually aren't available for comment on their findings ahead of publication you know."

Blake blushed, caught in her excitement. She may or may not have forgotten to call ahead, which is why she was surprised at the front door when the receptionist ushered her in like the woman had expected her.

"I just need you to fill in the rest. All the bits which I needed to make look a little more proper than 'was interested in cool monster stuff'." She smiled warmly, giving off the aura of a welcoming soul. "Not that a Huntress competing in the final rounds of the Vytal tournament would have such academic interests."

Blake had to lift a brow, but Gige continued. "Oh come on, of course I'm going to look up the name of someone who just shows up out of nowhere!"

She sounded like she was having fun, and somehow reminded the Faunus of Pyrrha when she was in a good mood. The woman kept talking about this and that, but Blake got the impression that she was just filling the air with words to avoid an awkward silence. Getting the hint, Blake started on the blanks in the form.

The questions were basic things, stuff to confirm that she was indeed a student at Beacon. Student number, year, that sort of stuff. She filled them in while the woman droned on, looking over the other questions at the same time. They were all specific to some sort of confidential interview in sensitive materials, as well as what they were going to be used for. There was some jargon in there which she didn't recognize, but the gist of it looked like an information exchange. She provided information, Aegerter provided information. She sort of wondered what that would entail but Gige switched topics.

"So, what _really_ brings a young hunter to my labs?" She asked in a sort of pointed way. She wasn't probing, and her tone betrayed a sort of sarcasm implying that she didn't expect there to be any particularly good reason for Blake to be there.

"Well, uh." Blake paused for a moment as she tried to think about how she wanted to ask these questions without being awkward. She hesitated for a moment too long and she almost chuckled when Gige started talking again.

"How about this if you don't know how to start," She pulled herself up and leaned towards Blake, pulling the form towards her. She flipped through it as she continued speaking, "I'll tell you some more details about my work, then you can ask me for some more details if something sounds interesting. Good?"

This felt like an actual pause, so Blake nodded.

"Alrighty," Gige exclaimed, leaning back again and resting her feet on the table. "So I am the head in a task force to search for more practical ways to observe Grimm activities and record results. Along with that we're of course performing some experiments to make sure that what we've found is going to work for other groups."

Pausing to see if Blake had any questions she arched a brow, then continued.

"Obviously the hard part here is trying to put a Grimm in a box and stick needles in it. The old way of doing things where you tried to stuff something into a box and experiment with it failed all the time. The more morally dubious kiting of a Grimm into a pit with a convict inside as some sort of bait was a bit more successful, though it too failed eventually," Gige held her hands vertical and about shoulder's width apart and moved them apart. "Expand the size of the pen and you get some more time but there are diminishing returns over twenty feet radius and caps out hard at twenty-five. But that's the end of the simple examples."

"What were they trying to keep in those enclosures?" Blake asked, piping up since this seemed relevant. The 'apartment' the Beowolf was in was probably about that size in radius, roughly.

"Ah, just small things. Small nevermores, boarbatusks, that sort of thing." She replied, waving her hand. "Those grimm were the easiest to capture since a single Huntsman could kite them to an area or knock one into a pit of that size. A beowolf would be too big in some cases or could even leap out of pens."

When Blake seemed pleased with the answer Gige continued, "Because these didn't work, and more fragile ways of handing Grimm tended to fail in protecting researchers, most investigation into Grimm in a scientific way halted. If you put a Grimm in a cage with bars eventually it would break free and run amok, sometimes killing people in its rage. If the cage was too confined you had the opposite problem, the Grimm would simply die."

"So, you wonder in obvious suspense," She stood and stepped over to a low table with a coffee machine and kettle. She lifted up a box of tea and waggled it at Blake, who nodded in thanks, "how are we planning to overcome the magic suicide pact that bind Grimm together. Do they stop breathing? Hold their breath until their brains go blue?" Flicking on the kettle and putting a cup with a tea bag beside it along with a small pitcher of milk, she returned to Blake and set it in front of her. "Well, Grimm don't have any brains, and as you may have noticed no Grimm appear to have organs of any kind, so it's unlikely to be a nutritional issue or anything like that," Stepping back she retrieved another cup and filled it with water from a faucet nearby. "So we had to work under the assumption that Grimm simply die under unnatural circumstances, where the natural circumstance is that they do what they want."

Blake nodded. "But if they all wanted to simply destroy civilization, wouldn't they die out on our borders?"

"Maybe," Gige said, taking a sip from her cup. "of course we wouldn't be able to see that happen since they disintegrate and don't leave any evidence behind. That and there are plenty of Grimm in remote areas that don't have any humans or Faunus to maul. Whether that's a philosophical concern on the meaning of Grimm or not is none of my business, but it is important that, you're right, there's more to capturing a Grimm than letting it maul _you._ "

The kettle clicks and the researcher grabs it, filling a tea pot and setting it in front of Blake. "As we learned, there is something _very_ interesting about Grimm management. First of all, if a Grimm can escape, it will, eventually."

Blake fixed her tea while keeping her eyes on Aegerter, who replaced the kettle. _This sounds promising…_

"A labyrinth for example can contain beasts the size of a Beowolf for spans of days under the right conditions, something which was thought impossible before." Taking another sip from her glass she smiled. "Not that it is easy to make something like that and keep a Beowolf happy."

Unclipping a piece of paper from the clipboard she quickly doodled a maze with three exits that was divided into four sections. "So assuming that this maze is solvable, which it might not be but bear with me, the Grimm would have three options for escaping the maze. If it starts over here," She pointed to an area near one exit, a bit aways from another, and far away from the last, "it has two choices for exits. The one closest to it might only take a minute to find. Easy enough." She struck off exit A and pointed to the next closest one. "This one might take half an hour to navigate to, but the Grimm will probably make the trek out if it finds its way and there are no trick walls are anything." She struck off the second exit and circled the last remaining one. "So that leaves us with this one over here."

Leaning back, she rolled her shoulders, glancing over to something through a doorway. Blake took the moment to get a better look at her, as she had been listening, but not paying much attention to the random gestures the woman made. Gige was probably six or so inches taller than Blake, dirty blonde hair tied back in a rough braid that looked like it was used more out of practice than concern for style. Her long sleeve shirt was rolled up to her elbows and from what Blake could see the woman had musculature a bit too developed for your average citizen. Her hands looked rough and sinewy, the muscle well defined along the top and sides of her arm.

"Aww, if you wanna hold hands all you gotta do is ask!" Gige drawled, leaning back in her seat. She made no effort to hide her arms, so she obviously wasn't uncomfortable, though the glint in her eye when Blake looked up screamed of a challenge. Blake wasn't willing to pick her up on that.

"Anyways, that last door also works, and even though it might take quite a long time for the Grimm to reach it, the door technically constitutes and exit. And so, it will try and escape." She crosses out the final door. "Now, there is no exit. The Grimm will not attempt to find an exit unless it can brute force one into existence."

"Wait, why?" Blake asks, confused. "Why does it not look for an exit?"

"Because there isn't one." Gige replied as if it were painfully obvious. "In the simplest understanding of this model of a labyrinth, and we use a few assumptions. Firstly, if the Labyrinth is non-variable – meaning that it does not change in any way – and the Grimm cannot force an exit, there must be _some_ exit for the Beowolf or Boarbatusk to escape. Otherwise it will perish."

"And it will never search?" Blake asked, skeptical.

"Usually." She confirms, nodding her head. "Depending on the age of the Grimm there might be different outcomes in this way. One might be more patient and wait for a researcher to open an exit, in which case it will try and escape or something like that."

"What about Mountain Glenn?" Blake pressed, shifting in her seat. "After the people were forced underground a catacomb opened which was filled with Grimm. That overwhelmed the people who had survived the original Grimm invasion."

"True," The researcher admitted, taking another sip. "But in that case there could very well have been a connection to the surface through which the Grimm approached the wall. Also, some Grimm are more than willing to wait in places which seem inescapable for their size, only to burst out when least expected."

"Deathstalkers…" Blake muttered to herself.

"Exactly."

"So, what else have you found?" Blake asked, now realizing that she was getting into information that, while interesting, didn't really apply to the Beowolf. Or did it?

 _If the Beowolf always knows that there is an exit, some way for it to escape, does that mean that it could very well bust its way through Amity if necessary for freedom?_ She pondered that for a moment, then realized there was a better question.

"Actually," she begins, then pauses to take a gulp of the sweet tea. "Can humans act as barriers?"

Gige whistled low and she grinned. "Not unless they're cadavers, but if you mean indirectly…"

Leaning forward her smile changed from mischievous to dangerous. "Realize that in my explaining this to you I am describing physical examples of quantum theory which shouldn't be visible at macroscopic scales without some sort of mental insanity."

"Uh." Blake cut in, a bit surprised, "I meant in more of a literal way."

"Oh." Was the surprisingly dejected response which fell from Gige's lips like a birthday cake sliding off of a plate and onto the ground. "Well, believe me when I say it's cool."

Recomposing herself she gave the short version. "Depending on how old the Grimm is and how strong it is, a Beowolf might consider a person a barrier if they have reasonable expectations that they might die at the hands of… A weapon for example. But that is a somewhat subjective call made by the Grimm, so results can vary quite a bit."

"Does it work the same as a physically walled off exit?"

"Nope." Was the short answer. "A Grimm that is smart enough to know not to fight will probably be able to wait _very_ long spans of time for a chance to appear to escape."

"So it isn't as binary as there being an exit or not."

"Nope!" Gige confirmed, her grin back. "There are some theories around that, some outlier cases, but it's all mostly he-says she-says right now."

"Interesting…" Blake trailed off. With that statement alone, the Grimm was probably safe. It was definitely _very_ old and would probably be able to wait a while to get what it wanted. Though that 'what' was sort of up for debate, Blake was happy to know that it wasn't going to keel over dead anytime soon.

The woman seemed more than willing to share what she knew, and obviously had a lot to talk about. Unfortunately, Blake didn't have enough time to hear the full story of how they made these labyrinths, or how they figured any of this stuff out, she was focused on answers more than anything to the questions she already had. That said, she did have something she was interested in.

"One last question, I think." Blake murmured before draining the last of her tea. "About Grimm evolution."

"Mm?" Gige grunted, her lips again twisting into a smirk.

"The last book I read that had anything on the topic just spoke in broad strokes about how Grimm evolve as they age. What does the evolution of a Grimm entail?"

Gige nodded before seeming to think for a moment about how to answer. "Not that this is an area I know a lot about, but there are a couple of interesting points about Grimm and how they change."

"Firstly," She stood and splayed one hand holding it flat. "Grimm seem to exist as distinct species, and don't change on their own." She holds her other hand beside it, also flat. "If we have a species, say the Boarbatusk, and we search for other, children types of them, we will find none. There will be countless types of aged boars, but there are no 'genetic' subspecies. A Grimm always falls within a well-defined category, be it a Beowolf, a Taijitsu, or anything of the sort."

"In essence that means that two visually similar types of Grimm, say an Ursa and a Beowolf, are only as similar as a Nevermore is to a Behemoth." Gige brought her hands down to the table and lifted one slightly above the other. "Furthermore, there is no regression in a Beowolf, and there is no lateral movement from what we can see. A Beowolf newborn is the lowest form evolutionarily speaking of that type of Grimm. There was no Beowolf before the newborn, no proto-beowolf."

"So the oldest Beowolf in existence could be as old as the Grimm themselves?"

"Potentially." Gige confirmed, but she shook her head. "But it would be incredibly hard to confirm. It would have to have dodged all the normal pitfalls of existence, including freak accidents such as landslides or tsunamis. At the scale of time for living we're talking about your Grimm would have to be more than a little lucky."

Blake nodded, as it made sense. Accidents happen, and even without things such as car crashes or freak accidents around technology an 'immortal' being would still have trouble avoiding being crushed by a boulder rolling down a cliff or some such thing.

"As for combat evolutions… They're strictly human-related." Gige sighed. "Rarely does a Beowolf appear out of nowhere with the ability to eat bullets – not literally of course – without having come into contact with a human before. If continuously exposed to bullets over time the Grimm will eventually become all but immune to them. The defense comes from their masque, the white armor which covers parts of their bodies. The black part, what we usually call their 'flesh', tends to be far less resilient."

Blake nodded again, she knew as much. "But if a Beowolf was covered entirely in armor it wouldn't have any weakness. It would essentially be immune to all forms of firepower."

"Exactly, you would require something far more effective than normal arms to destroy it. At that point a Beowolf would be as resilient as a tank, but that doesn't necessarily make it a perilous enemy to challenge." Aegerter poured more hot water into Blake's cup and sat back down, crossing her legs. "Just because a boarbatusk is immune to Bullets doesn't mean it can't be destroyed by other means, or that it is particularly more dangerous than a regular boarbatusk. The tactics need to change, but…" She shrugged. "You've probably been hit by a Beowolf before, it hurts like hell. Just because the Beowolf is no longer worried about bullets doesn't mean that it will evolve gatling guns on its shoulders and start mowing down villages."

The researcher was grinning again, the glint in her eyes back as she peered at Blake. The faunus was starting to get a little suspicious of why the woman seemed so chipper at times during her explanations. It was a little unsettling.

"The true issue isn't the fact that a Beowolf gets particularly _stronger_ so much as their numbers become more difficult to handle." Gige continued, her tone changing slightly, becoming darker, more reserved. "Mountain Glenn is an example of Grimm slowly but surely overrunning a settlement. When they first beat back the Grimm some survived, retreating and building defenses against the weaponry being used. The next attack was more successful, and while they were driven back once more their abilities grew. Eventually the cycle runs itself to the obvious conclusion; either Vale wipes out all traces of the Grimm around Mountain Glenn to keep it from being overrun, or the Beowolves take the city eventually."

"Huntsmen like you or your teammates can usually slay dozens of weak Grimm without much concern, but the military defenses with ineffective ballistic weapons will eventually lose. As such, if you leave any Grimm you come in contact with alive, if may very well be the sort of beast which is far more treacherous than normal people can handle. On the scale of a Grimm hunting army… Well, you can imagine that before the discovery of Dust any early civilizations were swiftly put down by Grimm hordes."

"So, if Dust remains a viable approach, that means that Grimm can't adapt to it." Blake said, but the statement was just a question. That was what she thought, and what textbooks told her, so it made sense. If Dust really was what lead to the age of Man then it must have _some_ special property.

"If you want to believe that." Was all Gige had to say. "You might come across situations where that assumption will get you killed, so I'd be rather careful of assuming that any particular weapon is a silver bullet. Especially dust."

There was a long pause, both of them looking at each other. Gige's expression had changed from a smirk to blank, unreadable. Blake herself was feeling a bit worried. Her questions were mostly answered, but that final note was a bit… Scary.

"Now! I do believe that there isn't much time before the Final bouts begin. I think that you should be on your way for those, correct?" The researcher stood, motioning for Blake to get up. "It's been good explaining all this to you, hopefully it is useful for you in your hunts!"

Blake smiled and nodded and followed Gige to the exit of her labs, now noticing just how large the section of rooms was for a single person. Suspicious again she trained her eyes on the back of the woman's head. She noticed another strange thing, the fact that the woman had no bob to her walk, her head not moving up or down at all while moving. It was an old practice to try and hide when you were going to strike, and something that old soldiers did in her stories. It was strange to see a scientist doing it.

 _Is she a huntress herself?_ Blake wondered. It was rare for a Huntsman to take up another job after going through all their training… Especially going back to school for a specialized field like this… It made more sense than say molecular biology, but still.

"Say," Gige murmurs when they reach the exit. "You wouldn't happen to know a Beowolf with a Red Scroll, would you?"

She turns and gazes into Blake's eyes, her expression hard, but her smirk in place. Her hand rests on the door, the biometric scanner built into it showing a HUD. The green display stutters in place, the door lock not released, a silent threat to Blake.

The faunus was silent, trying her best to keep any expression out of her face. Internally she was seriously reconsidering her idea of coming here solo if the woman truly was—

"If you have problems," The woman continued, sharp teeth showing through her parted lips, "Know there is someone nearby who can help."

She opened the door and stepped aside, never breaking her line of sight. Blake bristled at the threat, but broke the gaze, stepping through the door. _Is she the one who got the Beowolf the scroll?_ It was possible she was just fishing for something, as she didn't have any details, but…

The door shut behind her before Blake could ask any questions, and with the dull thud of the lock she walked away, a chill running up her spine.

**Bonus: World of Remnant : Guilds**

_""16 000 men, women, children, both human and Faunus. We're basically a kingdom! A small one at least._

_-_ A Braemor Soldier on the state of her Guild.

_""The guilds, counted together, probably represent only about 1% of the population of Remnant. That said, they represent nearly 10% of the fighting force of the world._

_-_ An Atlesian Scholar on the size of Guilds

The history of Guilds in Remnant is as short and bloody as it is impressive. Following the Great war many great military men and women left behind their kingdoms to search for new life in the torn apart world. In doing so they came into contact with the small pockets of nomadic Faunus that had managed to survive the great tumult in the wilds with raging Grimm.

Already versed in the art of remaining hidden from the mortal enemies of man, and now with the fighting strength of soldiers who would become huntsmen, some of these nomadic tribes began to swell in power and strength rather swiftly. Small groups of Faunus transformed overnight from meek to forces to be reckoned with.

Immediately the balance of power in the world shifted. No longer were kingdoms such as Mantle or Mistral the sole beacons of hope for the expansion of mankind. The fact that Huntsmen or Huntresses who were being minted in the new Academies could have a chance to leave their kingdoms entirely was appealing.

This, of course, lead to some issues. Tried and true soldiers from the war, before the establishment of 'Huntsmen', wound up in some large fraction outside of the kingdoms, while some stayed behind to found the Academies. During conflicts between the kingdoms and the growing Guilds in the years that followed there was increasing appalment at the youth of the Kingdoms' new soldiers.

These 'Huntsmen' were far younger than the veterans of the War were, and at times differences which would have led to bloodshed were stayed by the reluctance of the Guilds. But that did not always happen, and one particular example is Mantle. The bloodshed there uprooted the very kingdom, leading to the founding of the Atlas we know today.

After the initial exodus of soldiers and Mercenaries ended the public knowledge of the Guilds naturally began to fade. Those who didn't take their families with them slowly fell out of contact as the guilds moved, and the stabilizing kingdoms became less concerned with the affairs of the guilds. Within two generations the only people who remembered the fact that there was any stable civilization of that scale out there were Academy heads and Council members.

In the meantime, the Guilds fashioned themselves into self-contained fortresses. Though they lacked the resources of the Kingdoms many guilds formed their own system of combat training for their youth. In particular, those skills required for hunting and eliminating problem groups of Grimm. Unlike Huntsmen and Huntresses the youth were never trained in fighting their own kind. Such 'unpleasantness' is relegated to the older members of the Guilds. They tended to be involved in resolving the major conflicts between Guilds when blood needed to be spilled. This two-tiered system was a direct response to what the Guilds saw of the Huntsmen and Huntresses. As such, soldiers who come from the Guilds are never referred to as either.

The guilds are relatively evenly spaced across Remnant though there are some notable exceptions. Atlas has only very small Guilds working on the continent as most have been absorbed into the Kingdom. Menagerie, an island in the deep south east, is also devoid of any groups that could be referred to as Guilds. Finally, there are no significant guilds operating on the continent north of Vacuo.

On the other three continents however there are dozens of guilds ranging in size from what most would call mercenary outfits (15-30) up to the largest known (around 16 000). Even the largest of these pale in comparison to the size of the kingdoms, which have several million inhabitants.

Despite the population difference the proportion of combat-trained members of a guild is quite high. This, mixed with their strong combat prowess, means that some great conflicts between man and grimm have been waged and won by particularly large guilds. The Braemor, for example, are named for their clearing of Grimm-infested forests near Vale shortly after the great war, an effort which was waged over ten years. Other Guilds in other locations strive for the complete eradication of Grimm in their regions, with mixed success.

It is worth noting that Atlas has a marked history of trying to push Guilds out of regions not directly controlled by any particular state. Despite the fact that this has displaced thousands over the years, no great public scrutiny has been laid against them. This is in part thanks to the lack of visibility that guilds have, as well as a general apathy towards them that the rest of the world has.

Despite that risk the Guilds continue to try and rid the world of Grimm in their own way, though tactics differ quite dramatically from group to group…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These 'World of Remnant' episodes will be posted at the end of some chapters whenever appropriate. They won't be too common, as there isn't much I want to go over in too much detail outside of the fic itself.


	26. Interference

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Njala has a day out on the town. Adam is caught off guard.

**An hour later…**

**Mercury:**

Standing in the back of a warehouse alone the assassin's son tapped his foot against the ground as he waited. He was supposed to be meeting with Adam today, their last face-to-face meeting before Cinder put her plans into action. Supposedly Adam had some information on the group that had been running interference before, but he hadn't said in the dead drop who exactly that person was.

Over the past five months someone had managed to sabotage six meetings between Cinder's group and Adam, the sort of meetings that you couldn't run over comms. Meanwhile, someone had been kidnapping members of the Fang and making them disappear, leading to a cycle of disappearances and interruptions which was putting both Adam and Cinder on edge.

Which put Mercury in the position of having to exchange the insults the two leveled at each other.

Emerald had been sticking close ever since the first meeting had been interrupted shortly after the 'Breach' incident. Mercury had managed to get out before whoever it was enacted their plan to turn the waterfront into a fireworks show. He caught a glimpse of the person, someone in dark clothing and a Grimm mask. Maybe one of Taurus' old lieutenants but the man denied it.

Spitting on the ground in front of him, he waited for the reprimand but didn't hear it. Emerald was hiding somewhere else in the shadows, keeping quiet as she waited for the assassin to show up. The girl had trouble maintaining that illusion, however, and last time the attacker had made a beeline for her to take her out.

They were counting on things going according to plan today, else they were going to have to do some things over the comms network that Cinder had managed to open. They were relying on that later, however, and it would be less than ideal to have to start using one of their aces before it was ideal.

They could have brought Cinder if she was available, but she had business today. The times that Cinder had been present for the face-to-face meetings the assailant had been unwilling to attack after the first try. Cinder had nearly diced the person in half before they escaped, and they obviously knew who their superior was. But that didn't mean that they weren't going to be a problem for Mercury, who had found himself nearly burned to death on two occasions when the killer had tried to smoke them out.

The suspicious part was that law enforcement hadn't been called to any of the locations where the meetings had been sabotaged. Even after fires and such there was no police activity, only the fire department responded and put out the flames. It was very suspicious, so he imagined it had to be one of Qrow's troupe, though then it was strange that he wasn't there to fight either.

A click in the distance signaled Adam's arrival and Mercury straightened slightly. He didn't move from his position against a girder set into the wall, but he did try and put off some air of seriousness. He could easily see down the alley that stacks of abandoned crates made, and the lights hanging from the ceiling cast perfect pale ellipses against the concrete floor.

A moment passed and Taurus turned the corner, his blade at his side as always. He led a small contingent of four Lieutenants who followed in a square formation. Each time he stepped into a pool of light the rays bounced off of his red hair and white mask. He looked like a ghost, the way he stalked down the aisle.

His mouth was curled into a snarl, obviously displeased. Mercury internally groaned at the prospect of having to listen to the man complain about whatever sabotage he was trying to avoid, or what new offense had been made against him. While the former bit was usually useful information in trying to figure out who had caught onto their scheme, the latter was just annoying.

"So, how go things in paradise?" Mercury drawled, stepping away from the beam and looking down his nose at Adam. "Let me guess, you've been compromised again?"

The glare that Adam shot at Mercury could have killed. "No, something else happened. The contingent of Marauders I loaned to Cinder was found this morning in Forever Fall. Twenty men and women total. All murdered."

"And that's our problem?" Mercury gouged, arching a brow. "I'm surprised you're complaining; if they were that weak they probably were trash to begin with."

"Silence!" Adam bellowed. "I was told that they were going to be used in a job in the City, not that they were going to be paraded around the forest to be caught and slaughtered by the Braemor."

_Cinder is going after who?_ Mercury thought, though he kept the confusion off his face. It was obvious that Adam was quite concerned about the prospect of having to fight these people. _I'll have to ask her when we return. Find out who these 'monsters' are._

"If She decides to incite their wrath the White Fang will be destroyed in minutes." Adam seethed stepping forward and gripping Mercury by the collar of his shirt. "And her plan will fall to shit along with us. No more games, _she tells me where every man sets foot from here on out._ " Adam's arm shook with the force he was gripping the silver-haired man's collar, and Mercury took a moment to thank the heavens that hand wasn't around his neck.

**Emerald:**

While it would be fun to watch Mercury sweat while trying to stare down Adam, the thief had a more important job. She stood in the shadows on top of one of the stacks of crates, a perfect hiding place to watch the entire goings-on from. This wasn't her first rodeo playing watch while Mercury bungled the discussions, and she had learned a fair amount about the person who kept showing up.

First of all, they used any entrance they could. Even when they had used secure locations with only one entrance and exit, they would use that same door to break in. If there was someone posted there, the chances were good that they already knew. They would either kill the man at the door or make another entrance.

They seemed satisfied with simply disrupting the meetings, though they had tried once or twice to also take out either her or Mercury at the same time.

Crouching low down she peered down at the bottom of a stack of pallets which had shifted, her eyes narrowing as she tried to see if there was anyone down there. The few times that she had managed to catch the infiltrator she had managed to obscure their faces through her semblance… But it wasn't as effective as she hoped. The attacker had good instincts, and even when Emerald tried to distract them it wasn't nearly as effective as it was on others.

She hypothesized that it was something to do with their semblance, as when they got within a few meters of an illusion they seemed to no longer attack even if there was an adversary there. It had caused problems in the past, and she wanted to avoid that now.

The noise she heard seemed to be nothing, but she didn't want to leave it to chance. Trying to keep her eyes down there for as long as possible she leapt up into the rafters, moving quietly along them, moving from beam to beam. As she moved she didn't see much, but she continued moving around up there as it gave her slightly better sight than on the crate pile.

The metal was cold and she paused for a moment to rub her hands together to keep some warmth in her skin. She glanced around once more before fiddling with one of her pouches and trying to open it. Balancing as she was and standing this high up it was a little hard to reach around, so she locked her leg against one of the angled beams to keep herself upright.

Pulling out a pair of gloves she pulled one of them over her hand, weaseling her fingers through the thin leather. They weren't thick enough to provide much warmth but it would be better than bare skin. As she was about to pull the second one on she caught another glint of light through the corner of her eye and turned to face it. She could easily see something catching the light, something which wasn't painted the same matte color as the surrounding metal.

Flexing her gloved hand hand, the leather groaned in protest and she leapt across the gap between her and the offending object, grabbing onto a chain to swing the distance her legs couldn't propel her. The metal chimed dully as she flexed her hips, willing the momentum to carry her forward. A quick front flip later and she was hanging just below whatever it was.

Heaving herself up she pulled the offending piece of metal off of the wall, only to find an elaborately put-together cut of iron, something which was designed to be seen in darkness. She swore under her breath and looked around to see that she was at the far end of the room from where she started. Looking down the aisle she saw one of the men Adam brought with him slide around a corner, a small trail of blood following behind him.

"Shit."

**Mercury:**

"And that's all she has for you right now. Be ready, she won't like waiting." Mercury warned, his brow furrowed. He had caught the shadow in the rafters of Emerald jumping about, but didn't know why she was running around like that. "Head back to your base for now, I'll come to you if there's anything else needed."

Adam growled, but acquiesced, giving a curt nod. He paused before turning, however, and laid his hand on his blade. "What's that scent of blood?"

Blinking, Mercury interpreted the action as a threat. Stepping sideways his eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, Taurus?"

Before the faunus could respond he drew his blade with blistering speed, his sword knocking a throwing knife off course where it lodged itself in a nearby wall. Before he could rest two more flew through the air at his head, both of which he needed to dodge.

"You're back motherfucker?!" Mercury bellowed, her face morphing into a snarl. "Get over here you piece of shit, show your face!"

There was no response, much to his displeasure, and he stepped ahead of Adam. He now saw the pile of four corpses which were propped up against the wall, each of them with a very obvious stab wounds along their jaw lines from which blood poured out.

"Sunovabitch." Adam gasped, Mercury could hear the man's teeth grind in anger.

"We're still trying to confirm that first bit." Mercury said dryly. "Haven't nailed the fucker to a wall yet, don't know who it is."

"Where's your friend?" Taurus continued forwards, re-sheathing his sword as he cast his eyes about from behind his mask. "She was approaching before the daggers, but she's gone."

"Probably trying to catch up with the SOB." Mercury scoffed.

"Or dead."

Sucking his teeth for a moment Mercury would've agreed that it wasn't looking good. If he were to return to the good mistress with news that one of her two disciples had been force-fed a dagger down the throat he probably wouldn't make it through the story unscathed. It would be better for him to find her now, and joke later.

**Moments Earlier:**

Emerald saw the shadowed individual throwing their knives and she moved to draw her dual submachine guns. As she did so, however, the light around her was drowned out by a ghastly cloaked shadow much larger than her which leapt right in front of her.

Seeing that even if she shot she would collide with the ground, she grabbed a girder and tossed herself to the right, focusing on the mind of the second cloaked attacker. She willed them to not be able to see her, to see something that would cause them to fall, but as she did so she found that there was nothing. Where usually there was the haze of another person's perception their was naught but darkness. It was like there was no mind, no thought, nothing. The cape was empty, and only a specter resided inside.

Her mind started to get away from her, images welling up on the inside which she had made peace with long ago started to pop up with this dark introspection, enough that she had to break contact and pause for a moment to recollect herself.

The pause was a moment too long, however, and she found the metal she was standing on give way to a slashing strike from the shadow's hand. Not so much cut as shorn by force, she lost her footing and fell a short distance before another impact caught her in the side, jarring her and causing her eyes to loll back in her head.

As she was stunned she felt a fine shower of glass coat her and get tangled in her hair, then a short drop which knocked her out cold.

**Njala:**

With Sustrai knocked out it was quite a bit easier to confirm her suspicions. Hallucinations made things like 'critical understanding' difficult, especially when you were fighting someone who had guns and was using their semblance to look like some great reaper of souls. She had thought before and was able to confirm now that the girl was Emerald though, and that meant that her accomplice was probably Mercury. That left Cinder as the one who had nearly made her into a human lightning rod few months back.

That was one experience Njala didn't think she'd forget anytime soon. Bolts from the blue, the woman not even trying to hide her bizarre abilities… Not that the semblance mattered much to the woman. She had more pressing matters at hand.

She was dashing along the lot outside of the storage shed she had tracked the troupe to, trying to hold to the shadows while the girl was flopped over her shoulders in a Fireman's carry. It wasn't going to be comfortable for Sustrai when she woke up, but it was the best choice Njala had for carrying someone who was that much taller than her.

Thankfully she had been given the head-start she needed, and appreciated the helping hand.

In her Vale swat fatigues, the same ones she used for guarding the Grimm, she was light on her feet, and without her armored gauntlet on she was able to push a bit more speed out of her to sprint the distance to a set of silos about three hundred meters away. She was pounding pavement as hard as she could without the ballistic assistance that many huntsmen or huntresses used to move quickly. She just needed to be able to get out of sight, and far enough away from Adam Taurus that he wouldn't be able to sniff her out.

This wish was somewhat dampened when a red light lit up the pavement next to her and she was forced to dodge deep to the left to avoid a shockwave in the shape of a crescent. She didn't have to look over her shoulder to know that it was the damned faunus, and if he was in range to do that she didn't have long before Mercury followed.

She was relying on muting her aura. If it showed it would be easy for them to trace her, if she hid it she looked like any other thug – if a particularly well-trained thug – in the city. If she glowed gray with the force of her aura she was sure that she might eventually be discovered if she had to face them later on in a different guise.

Hearing another echoing slice, she dodged again, a spray of gravel and small shards of pavement impacting her side and Sustrai's forearms. It didn't cut through her clothes but some of the larger pieces caused her breath to hitch, the pain definitely an indicator that they were going to bruise.

When she reached the corner of the silos she drew the long sword which was at her side and forced it into a hatch which kept the metal capsule shut. She used the simple blade as a crowbar, the metal squealing as she forced it open. _One… Two…_ and the door was open, and she tossed herself and Sustrai inside, slamming the door shut again.

Covering Sustrai's mouth in case she opened, but leaving her nose uncovered she glowed with her aura for a moment to throw Sustrai a few meters up the silo to a standing platform, and followed suit, grabbing the woman again. She carried her bridal style now because she was sure she was going to bang the woman against a railing if she wasn't careful, and continued as quickly as she dared while remaining mostly quiet.

When she was seven floors up she finally heard the door at the bottom get torn open, or more accurately blasted in. From the noise, and the fact that the door moved fast enough to put a dent in the other side of the wall, it was Mercury, and it was one hell of a kick.

She was high enough up that she could probably do what she needed to do so she flipped Emerald over and laid her on her back on the grated floor. She shook the girl awake, willing the young woman to be conscious before her partner in crime made it all the way up.

To help facilitate this process, and make sure that the young man had a bit more trouble than he expected, she pulled a grenade from a pouch on her vest and pulled the pin, lobbing it underhand over the railing. A second or two later there was a loud swear and an explosion, the former somehow quite a bit louder than the latter. Sustrai shot awake, but not before Gige drew her revolver and pointed it straight up at the keystone of the arch.

When she fired the darkness of the room was suddenly overtaken by a blinding light as the bullet shot through the air. It was a round large enough that the velocity it was fired at caused it to heat up significantly as it traveled, turning white hot before it blew through the ceiling, vaporizing the stone.

Sustrai screamed, an understandable reaction for Njala. _She has just woken up in some cold, dark place, has just been blinded by some lightning bolt gun, and has just heard her… Boyfriend? Whatever, heard someone get (hopefully) blown up._

_Good._

Kneeling down and lifting Sustrai's upper body up she held the woman's arms down to keep her from flailing, a stray hand nearly slapping her in the face. Njala took a deep breath, calming herself, then leaned down to whisper in Emerald's ear, asking—

This plan was swiftly interrupted by a red beam of light piercing through the side of the silo, the unmistakable red giving Njala only enough time to lie down flat as what she could only imagine to be Taurus' blade leveled the place.

There was a scant moment where through the four-inch-wide space of nothingness which was supporting the top three quarters of the cylinder she could see Taurus, his face a mask of disgust. She sarcastically thought _It's nice that he's still alive and a living, breathing. Not dead. Or mauled. Or something else._

Below, just over the sound of cracking brick, she could hear a low growl. _This guy has timing, I'll give it that._

Knowing that Emerald and Mercury were going to make it out alive (much better than them both meeting their untimely end as children), she lunged forwards and curled up with her arms covering her head. She impacted the falling brick and forced her way through, the heavy rock would have given her nasty bruises if she wasn't now glowing with her aura. She made enough distance that she was able to land on the rooftop that was right beside the silo. She didn't have much time

The man was fast, but thankfully she was able to out-zone his blade with some rapid movement backwards. He was following, something which was going to have to stop soon because she didn't feel like losing a limb or being cut in half today.

Grabbing her revolver she activated the switchlock on it that formed it into a gauntlet, trying her best to avoid any glancing blows from the faunus. In full armor this sort of fight would have been determined as at least a draw, but with only one arm protected she needed to be more careful.

A flash on her right side and she dropped low to the ground as an arc of red sheared through the air where her torso once was with a hum. Adam's blade had an annoying habit of doing that, and that was why she wanted out of here.

If she was too close he would have her dead in seconds, if she was too far his blade's echo would cut her. The only ranges where she was safe were either right in front of him where his shotgun could connect, or far out of his range.

While she waited for her gauntlet to fully form (what normally took seconds felt like it was taking a lifetime) she danced between within the range of his sword's tip and where the blade's echo was. They were playing a guessing game that he was leading, but she was winning, at least she hoped.

Noticing that his rush-down wasn't working the Faunus shifted stance quickly, giving her little time to react when he lunged forward with a flying kick. She didn't have enough time to dodge, so instead she was forced to throw up her left arm to block. The impact of the man was significant, and even with her somewhat stocky build she staggered back a bit from the strike.

While she shifted to force him to move she saw the end of the rifle he carried as the sheath pointed towards her. She swore, ducking right and rallying her strength in her right arm. She jabbed quickly, striking his side to force him away, but the swordsman twisted in the air and struck his blade against her armored arm to distance himself more gracefully. Mid-air he readied his blade and swung, but was forced to block when three throwing knives were tossed at him in an arc.

"What, can't kill a bitch without an aura?" Njala snarked, turning her nose up at Taurus from behind the mask she was wearing. "The bull of the White Fang, unable to fight an unarmed _human_. What a joke."

**Mercury:**

Pulling himself up from where he found himself on the pavement he lifted a hand to touch his face. He remembered a pin being pulled and… _A fucking flashbang? Who the fuck was that?_

Turning his head he could see the collapsed ruin of the brick structure and felt his stomach heave. He was in there mere moments ago, and based on the ten foot tall pile of brick he wouldn't have survived after being stunned by the grenade. But here he was, not crushed to death and not quite worse for wear.

Was what he thought, until he heard a growl above him and felt a truck park itself on his pelvis.

He ground out a yell through his teeth and tried to turn his head to see who it was that was pinning him but only received more weight for his efforts. Taking deep breaths to distance himself from the pain he tried to rally his strength to fight back when he heard something fall beside him.

He could make out the back of Emerald's head and took a moment to revel in the fact he wasn't going to be hung by his entrails curtesy of Cinder tonight. She made it out too, which was surprising since last he had checked she was in there too, which meant that someone had pulled both him and her out of a collapsing building without either of them being hurt too badly.

_Aside from my fucking kidneys if this fucker doesn't get off me._ He thought sarcastically.

It was then that he heard the sound of Adam fighting up above, no doubt with the person who had been a nuisance for a long time now. That also meant that if he were to go up there he would no doubt wind up being sliced in half by Adam. The man wasn't known for holding back, and from what Mercury had seen that meant that you had to know when to get the hell out of the way, or face the wrong end of his blade.

If he had jumped up right then, before catching it, he probably would have fared no better than the intruder; a bloody lump somewhere cold.

_Fucker saved me twice._

**Adam** :

"Of course it's you." Adam seethed, landing on his feet and flicking his sword. He turned up his nose in kind, baring his teeth. "Killing my men and leaving them to rot. I didn't realize you were had become nothing better than a monster after becoming a pariah."

Njala smiled a grim smile, drawing her sword and holding it dagger-wise. "Are they your men, or your _mistress's_?" She looked like she was mocking Adam by looking over her blade and flicking off an invisible speck of dust. "It's been hard to tell with all the stupid shit they seem to do. Breaking into secured Atlesian fortifications… Poking their head where it doesn't help Faunus…"

That hit Adam where it hurt most, his pride. Both in his pride for his men, the lives that they dedicated to the White Fang cause, as well as his pride as a leader. He bit his tongue and felt a sliver of blood in his mouth.

"She wasn't my first choice after what happened." Was all he could say. "It doesn't matter." He lifted his blade and sheath so they were facing her horizontally. "You have to pay for what you've done."

She could see it in her eyes that she didn't want to fight, though he didn't like the fact that it seemed to be pity that inspired this hesitation, not trepidation or fear. Instead she looked tired.

Njala didn't respond to him, instead dropping a card on the ground and resting her sword on it. "You might kill me eventually Taurus, but not today. You'll get your chance another time."

Adam took a step forward, dashing to cover the distance as quickly as possible but it didn't matter. As he did so she dipped the blade down into the card, and a dark maw opened up under the vanguard. He fired his blade at her, but by the time the blade reached her there was naught but empty space.

She had escaped.

**Blake:**

Sitting on the train heading back towards Beacon the Faunus had her eyes trained on the monitors showing the beginnings of the Singles elimination. Before they rolled all the representatives of the academies that were left out they had a recap of the matches up until now. They had done the same thing when it was on to doubles, but it was more of a montage.

Right now they were doing an analysis of the different matches, currently analyzing the battle between Emerald, Mercury, Yatsuhashi and Coco. The match had been an objective slaughter, and watching the group duke it out was a bit discouraging for Blake to watch.

_Mercury would be a force to be reckoned with if Yang had to fight him._ She thought grimly, her expression tense. _We all know she finds it hard to fight kick-boxing opponents, and Yatsuhashi was bowled right over during their fight._

It wasn't that she didn't believe in her teammate, she was sure that Yang could swing a battle in her way with her semblance but… Well, judging by the disaster that her bout with the Beowolf had been, not even her semblance could protect her when she wasn't expecting it.

While she watched the replay she heard a noise above like a… A thud. Like something had fallen onto the train from a fair distance up. She looked out the window to see that there was nothing around that could really account for that; they were traveling through a residential area with low buildings, there was nothing that could have fallen with that much force.

_Probably a bird?_ Blake wondered, though that didn't sound right. They pulled into a terminal and she sat down again, deciding she must have hallucinated or something. The doors opened and only one person got on before the ding-dong of the train announced that they were continuing on to the next station.

She was watching another replay when the person who entered started speaking quietly on their phone, their back turned to the Faunus. Already finding it hard to follow with the slow subtitles and the quiet audio, she tossed the person a glare. As she did, however, she realized that she knew who the person was.

Blake, like the rest of her team, had found it difficult to make time for the Beowolf while it was under detention. But when she and her teammates met there to talk or she went on her own to tutor the Beowolf one of the guards was almost _always_ there.

The guards didn't wear name tags, and none of them spoke much in front of team RWBY, but Njala acted slightly differently. The other guards would stay outside of the room while they interacted with the Beowolf, but Njala would step inside quietly and watch. Mostly her eyes were on the Beowolf, her expression soft.

It Blake had seen it once or twice, and she brought it up with the team though they were skeptical that anyone outside of their group of friends had any positive thoughts about the grimm. But from what Blake saw, someone must have been interacting with it. It was performing mannerisms (aping them more accurately) that none of them had, used furniture, and started referring to them by names in writing – a surprise to Blake who thought it would never use anything as abstract as a 'name'.

That was how she learned Njala's name in the first place.

Without quite intending to her ears twitched to try and catch some of Njala's conversation. She could make out some of the faint words that were being spoken, but most of it was muted by the movements of the train car.

Focusing intently for a moment she was able to block out most of the noise and focus more intently on the older woman's soft voice. It was low, and her she spoke like a sigh, but somehow…

"… Taurus was the only one who saw me. The other two were…" A bump in the track and Blake lost focus, an accident helped by the fact that she heard her old boyfriend's name come up. It was astronomically unlikely that anyone around her was talking about _that_ Taurus, but when the name came up there was always a missed beat in her chest. She shook her head of the thoughts and tried to focus once more.

"… on the feed from Amity. They'll be fine, but just in case… How was your day? Less… Just because I get to have all the fun doesn't mean you…"

Blake blushed and flattened her ears to her head when she heard Njala basically purr into her scroll in a loving way. She didn't sound teasing or anything, and sneaking a glance to the side she saw that Njala was leaning against one of the railings with a smile on her face. It was embarrassing to be in the same car as her, and Blake turned to look the other way, resolving to move to a different car if Njala didn't do so first.

Busying herself with her scroll she sent a few messages to the rest of her team, the three of them wondering whether or not she was going to make it back in time for the ceremony. She told them that she would catch it on the TV there if she had to, and not to wait up.

She then received a picture of Yang, Weiss and Ruby with the Beowolf, the photo looking like Ren had taken it, as Pyrrha and Jaune looked like they were just out of shot one way, and Nora would have made it a selfie. She smiled at seeing it, seeing Ruby sitting on the Grimm's shoulders with her hand out to signal a charge. She could almost hear the cheer from the young leader, the chide from Weiss, and the laugh from Yang.

A shadow obscured the soft light coming through the window and she blushed, presuming correctly that Njala had just noticed that she was there. She looked up sheepishly to expect a disgruntled or embarrassed woman, but instead she could make out a small smile through the light's glare.

"You're awfully far from your team today." Njala teased, taking a seat across from the Faunus. "You're competing in the final, I would have thought that you all would have been with your friends in Amity."

"I had concerns about the Beowolf." Blake admitted, shifting in her seat. "With the way it's being contained right now… I was worried that it might die like other Grimm do."

"Mhm…" The guard hummed, nodding her head. "But I'm sure that if it wanted to get out, it could."

Blake arched a brow, "But you would stop it."

" _I_ would, if I could, or if I knew." Njala said, waggling a finger. "The Grimm is in a penthouse at the top of Amity. Its windows were meant to stop stray debris from the coliseum floor from breaking through the windows if it got above the particle shield. It's not a jail cell, and nothing has been done to make it one."

Blake looked surprised, so Njala continued. "The doors aren't locked because only the headmasters have keys to them. The windows might be bullet-proof but they're not designed for heavy impacts from a Grimm. It _could_ leave if it wanted to, force its way to the outside. But it doesn't."

"It probably knows that just outside there are thousands of huntsmen in training." Blake pointed out. "That could be enough to keep it in."

"Maybe. Has anyone told it that it's surrounded by huntsmen?" Njala laughed, pointing out something that Blake had noticed, that it didn't have a good sense of who people were. "For all it knows, they could be milkmen down there. It only recognizes weapons as making a Huntsman."

The guard then laughed. "Tipped my hand a bit there, didn't I?"

Blake looked quizzical for a moment, not understanding what her 'hand' was in this situation aside from what Blake had already suspected. She shrugged it off, however.

"I knew that there was something a bit strange when the Beowolf knew what your name was." Blake said slowly. "I told the Beowolf our names a long time ago but it never stuck. It only used colors to refer to us for the longest times."

"It's good to see someone noticed. When you and your friends didn't stop by I was worried that you had been convinced by the good General that it was in your best interest to stay away."

Blake scoffed, shaking her head. "Ruby believes in it, so we all do."

Taking a closer look at the guard she saw that there were scuffs on her knee pads and fine gray-red dust on her clothing. She looked like she had been in some fight, which made Blake wonder absently whether or not something had happened out in the city which needed a single SWAT member like Njala to intervene.

As Njala started talking about some of her observations of the Grimm though the Faunus slowly forgot her curiosity and her suspicion, lulled into a false sense of confidence by silver words.

**Cinder:**

The maiden stood in her dorm along with her two badly scraped and bruised disciples, Mercury and Emerald. Her eyes were closed shut, her face serene in a desperate attempt to keep herself from acting rashly. What she heard was not only an embarrassment, but laughably predictable.

Of course she didn't relay accurate information to Adam through Mercury. That sort of thing was just going to ruin her plans, and she wasn't so stupid as to throw it all away on the back of a known potential attack.

The only surprising things were what Emerald heard, and what Mercury saw.

"What you heard, Emerald, was in all likelihood a command influence." Cinder breathed, her expression translating into her words with lazy confidence. "You would do well to avoid the woman in the future if you would like to keep your will."

Emerald, from where she was bowing prostrate in front of the woman looked up meely. "What do you mean?"

A sharp and cold glare from Cinder caused Emerald to lower her head again, pressing her forehead into the carpet.

"The woman has a semblance that works like a contract. A very convoluted thing, useless in combat but very, _very_ dangerous out in the world." Cinder licked the inside edge of her lips. "Unless she is bluffing, or double bluffing, you should be careful to not get cornered again. I'm sure you two won't fail me again, will you?"

Neither spoke, knowing that this question was at its very core rhetorical. They were ordered to kneel, so they were, and they wouldn't speak out of turn and show opinion until it was expressly asked for.

"As for what you thought you saw Mercury, I sent no such support. Especially not the kind that disappears in a puff of smoke."

"B-" Mercury cut the word off in his mouth, knowing very well not to contradict Cinder when she was like this.

"Whoever you saw was probably working for our little deviant. She probably thinks that leaving you alive would mean that the plans she heard would come to fruition without change… An interesting thought… But naïve." Cinder smiled a cool smile before looking back down at her underlings and tilting her head. "Ignore it for now. But if you see yourselves cornered by someone with a honeyed voice… Kill them. Or die trying."

By her tone, it was clear there was no third option.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this, AO3 is completely up to date with what's going on in the story. From here on out the updates are going to be far less frequent since I'm writing the content, not simply copying it from one site to another. Thanks for reading this far, all of you that have. I really appreciate it!


	27. Monster vs Machine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Beowolf gets a moment to practice with a weapon under the careful watch of Ironwood.

**The Day Before the Match between Penny and Pyrrha**

**Ironwood:**

The general of the armies of Atlas ascended the stairs to the training hall, his hands clasped behind him. His head was down, and if he were any more reluctant he would be counting the steps, if only to give him a reason to trace his steps back to recount them when he reached the top.

He had heard of Oobleck's plan through Ozpin as the two had decided it was in the best interest of both parties to have tabs on the Grimm. The professor had wanted to see what the Beowolf could do with a _weapon_ of all things.

It had taken weeks to deliberate on it. Ozpin was as reluctant as he was for once, the main advantage of control they had was that it _was_ unarmed. They couldn't harm it with bullets, at least not standard munitions that his officers carried, and it was as fast as any Beowolf. As they stood now he would have to deploy Paladins and Penny to secure it.

That wasn't exactly a viable option right now.

Barring that they would have to send Qrow, and James hardly considered that a _true_ choice.

Eventually, however, the General's curiosity had gotten the better of him. He had been asked whether or not he could trust children… Ruby Rose in particular. He trusted his students the same way Ozpin did, implicitly and with the expectation that they would give their lives for the cause of human survival…

But he had already found that unpalatable.

If the children trusted it, he would. For now.

Behind him two Knights carried an opaque steel case, almost a coffin, that had the seal of Atlas emblazoned on it. Inside, a Halberd, one large enough that a Grimm the size of the Beowolf would be able to use it naturally. It had been Oobleck's recommendation given the interest that the Grimm had in Ruby's scythe. A halberd was quite a bit less technical, and it lacked the trick functionality of a firearm.

In the long hall that led to the training room the General could see beams of light stream in from the left banks of arched windows. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a moment he heard the rhythmic clacking of the Knights' feet on the ground, as well as his own. The cool wind from the unprotected sky on his left…

Blocking it all out he opened his eyes to see one of the guards in front of the door, their standard black uniform easy to see in the bright halls. Ironwood recognized him as one of the reserves, one of the men that was on when the others weren't available to cover. There were some differences in ability among the Guards, with some being nearly Huntsmen in their combat history, while others were mere police officers. This man was part of the latter group.

The man stood at attention and saluted Ironwood, who waved it off.

He entered the bright hall to see the Beowolf for the first time in person without its cloak. He would have been impressed, if it wasn't in its own way something that inspired fear. The beast had its back to him, but was standing straight and tall well over seven feet. It wore its armor much like the security staff here did, but it was smooth and lacked any seams. Strong, he had been told, like if someone had layered steel plates in millimeter thick layers over four inches, but pliable like skin to the beast and as resilient as combat composite.

It turned and Ironwood met its eyes, noting the pronounced muzzle and the markings of its mask which trailed off the side of its head and down its neck. He had to admit, if only to himself, that to the untrained eye the thing looked no different from a normal Grimm aside from its armor, its middling size, and the fact that it stood straight.

When the Knights began unpacking the case they were carrying the Beowolf lost interest in the commander and approached the casket, looking down at the weapon. As it did so Ironwood continued to watch, noting all the strange things that he hadn't seen before in the simple beowolf before.

Most subtle, and perhaps most disturbing, was that it didn't breathe. The beowolf watched the knights work with some small interest from its movements but it made no noise. Not only was it not making any noise, but it wasn't making any of the natural sounds that its kind did. It didn't breathe, its arms didn't rustle against its chest as it shifted, nothing of the sort.

There was something basic about the breath… Every animal above land needed air to survive but… Like a specter the Beowolf seemed disinterested in this simple requirement of life. It made noise, but it utilized air because it had to, not because it wanted to.

The thought was chilling… It couldn't drown, it was silent, it could remain still in the wild for hours without ever revealing its existence… It was no wonder that the guilds used other methods of detection beyond their mortal senses.

Another thing, something the Beowolf hadn't noticed before, were the eyes.

No grimm had eyes in the way that humans did. They simply had pebble-like orbs which sat on their mask that seemed to function in the same way. The beowolf had them as well, the red orbs set into its brow much like a canid would… But upon closer inspection the small orange dots that could be speckled up over its brow and to the back of its head were the same that other Grimm had.

Were they fake? Some sort of scare tactic?

_Had it picked up the habit of 'looking' at things through humans?_

These observations weren't making this choice any easier for the general. It was obvious that the Grimm would be a menace on its own if there was no way to chain it to the state. The longer he remained in its presence without the disarming company of its guardian huntresses the more certain he was that it posed a greater threat than anyone realized.

He watched the Beowolf pull the halberd out from the case and inspect it, putting those thoughts aside once more. The weapon had been crafted simply, the base weapon purchased from a local arms dealer and modified to suit the Grimm. It was twelve feet long, from hilt to the end of the blade, designed so that the long arms could manipulate the reach more comfortably. The blade of the weapon was shaped like a war axe, but the blade dipped lower down than most, giving it the length of a short sword. At the end, a simple spearhead. At its length most weaponsmiths would call it a pike… But for the Beowolf who had an arm span of ten feet…

Holding the weapon up in the air for a moment the General could see it inspecting the weapon, though it didn't move its head or the item much. It eventually pulled the axe blade close to it, making a noise that seemed rather… Disappointed.

Holding the weapon out in front of it again the Beowolf flicked it in a sharp clockwise direction, the handle of the weapon collapsing significantly down to a more manageable two feet. The axe now was longer than the hilt, and the way that the Grimm held the weapon it acted more as 'knuckles' than anything else.

It huffed audibly and turned its head to Ironwood, an obviously learned trait. It seemed expectant, waiting for an explanation.

"This weapon is yours, for now." James said, his voice even. "Doctor Oobleck believes you might have some combat prowess with a human weapon. I am here to see it for myself."

It huffed again, what Ironwood understood to be an acceptance of the terms.

It nodded its head to the Knights and Ironwood held up a hand. "First, however, a test of your resilience."

This caused the Beowolf to pause, but only for a moment. It stepped away and turned to face the machines, no expression on its visage like usual. Stood there waiting, not attempting to shield itself in any way. It obviously knew what was coming but seemed to not care at all.

Ironwood shivered, but raised his hand anyways and the Knights moved to stand ten meters away from the Beowolf, their assault rifles raised. The rounds were high caliber, designed so that they could focus fire down Ursa Major in seconds, or mow down lessor grimm in one or two shots.

If there was any justice in the world, this would kill it.

When the two mechs started firing their rounds impacted the Beowolf with a flash, the packed dust munitions going off spectacularly as their casing set them into collapse. The Beowolf barely shifted under the assault, though James couldn't be sure with the bright impacts and the dust thrown up by the small explosions.

Thirty rounds later and the Knights stepped down, holding their guns in front of them in a neutral position while the Beowolf remained where it was. The general watched for any signs of injury but the Grimm just remained where it was, standing stock-still.

For a moment the General wondered if that had actually killed the Grimm, but saw the Grimm move after another second of waiting. It turned to face Ironwood and the man could see several holes in the chest piece of its armor. They were little craters, the rounds designed to pierce the hide of the beasts and not the armor of a Beowolf. The same rounds had been used on it before, when it had been trying to escape Vale, but—

To the General's shock, five rounds seemed to materialize out of nowhere and fall to the ground in front of the Beowolf. They rattled against the ground for a moment before coming to rest, an ashy smoke blowing off of them.

 _Those…_ He took a deep breath in through his nose and out through his mouth, an old calming tactic to clear the mind. _Those rounds are designed so that on impact with a Grimm the kinetic energy sets of a primary charge, at which time the dust on the inside is put under enough strain to explode. If these rounds didn't go off…_

Slowly lifting his eyes to the Grimm again the General saw something he had never witnessed before in his entire history as a huntsman. Five holes corresponding to the bullets that had just hit the ground were oozing a dark red substance, too dark to be blood, and thick enough to be tar. A sixth bullet was pushed out from another hole, and it fell to the ground, ashy blood evaporating away.

It was earth-shatteringly clear what he just saw.

So long ago now he had heard about how a two-stage anti-material rifle had been used to subdue the Beowolf from Ruby Rose – he had already known of course, he authorized its use – as she had found the un-detonated 'bloom' round. At some point she must have explained it to the Beowolf, and just now, it must have learned what these kinetic rounds were doing…

 _The beowolf is selectively allowing bullets to pierce through its armor, preventing the kinetic energy from the sudden stop from detonating them. Then, it expels them as if they were dirt being washed away by blood._ Now, even the anti-vehicle rounds would be useless against it, as it could hide the primary within itself, if Ironwood's assumption was correct.

 _How much pain would that cause it?_ Ironwood wondered, imagining that it couldn't be the same as if it were for a human. Being shot was bad enough, but forcing a bullet through your body again? Even if Grimm lacked internal organs, it must be incredibly painful. Agonizing in the least.

As the Beowolf recovered the 'blood' faded away, burning into nothingness as the holes in its armor closed, the armor looking like it stretched back into place to fill the void. It lacked an expression, as usual, and it didn't show whether or not what it just did

James cleared his throat, turning for a moment away from the Beowolf. He would need to speak with Ozpin about this development.

 _An attack craft could punch through._ James considered, tapping a finger against his knee. _Much higher kinetic force than these hand-held rifles, they could start cracking the armor, and if it tried absorbing them they would punch through to the other side of its chest._

For him, right now, this was as much trying to understand what abilities his mechs would have to do to counter a Grimm such as the Beowolf as it was his own curiosity at how resilient it had become.

He nodded and the Grimm brandished its weapon once more, extending it to its full length and leaping back away from the Knights. It held the weapon laterally across its chest and forward, hands spaced evenly at shoulder's width. It then brought the blade back like a scythe and crouched low for a lunge, its head down low.

"Begin."

**Beowolf:**

The Grimm lunged forwards at high speed, swiftly closing the gap between it and the Knights who were a short distance away. They jumped away in opposite directions and it chose to follow the one that was further from the steel-haired man.

The Knight started firing but was having difficulty tracking the Beowolf at its speed, something compounded when the Beowolf turned on a dime by dropping one of its hands to the floor and digging in, giving it a point to pivot on, it slid clockwise for a moment before it caught its footing again and leapt with the full strength of its hind legs.

Whatever distance that remained between the machine and the monster a fraction of a second later was immediately handled by the weapon in the Grimm's hands. Still with it canted at the side the Beowolf slid its hands down low to the end of the hilt, twisting with all its might to arc the blade in a circle.

The result curved the handle, the force fighting against the drag of the axe head, which rocketed towards the mech at a speed fast enough to be impossible to dodge, but slow enough that it could see the incoming strike. The machine moved to block, lifting up its arms to grab the blade, unworried about the metal ligaments which could absorb the shock of the strike.

What the machine hadn't expected, however, was the Beowolf shifting the blade. Half-way through the swing the Beowolf rotated the hilt in its hands, twisting the axe end so that it was now coming at the machine broad-side. The strike, now hitting like an obscenely broad hammer, hit like a sledge, punting the machine hard enough that it lost its footing and was sent flying backwards towards the far end of the hall.

No sooner had it paused than the Grimm felt the bullets from the other machine impact its back, a rather uncomfortable sensation to the Beowolf. Its armor reacted and some of the bullets slipped through the first layer before getting squeezed by the counter-action of the armor. Simply put, the composite of the armor clamped down on the bullets, slowing them before they hit the body on the inside. It was effective, though the Beowolf only knew that because it was working now. It had not exactly planned on the trait.

It turned to face the other mech and grumbled, measuring the distance between itself and the machine to be two 'bounds' away with a good first kick-off. But if it didn't put both of the machines in the same place, it would be spending all of its time running back and forth.

Instead, it dashed for the Knight who it had just launched, closing the distance with the slowly moving mech quickly and hefting it off the ground by its featureless head. It held up the small body in front of it while it forced the bullets which had already hit its back out, freeing up some of its movement again, the blood burning away to leave only its pristine armor.

The mech stopped firing at the chest after it saw its ally and aimed for the head, where the armor was much harder and less able to absorb bullets to minimize damage. They clouded the Beowolf's vision, forcing it to move its head for a moment, though it already knew what it was going to do.

It underhand tossed the mech, throwing it along the ground to where it was going to slide right into the one that was across the room, it dodged, of course having enough time to do so at this distance. It avoided its comrade easily but swiftly found it face to face with the spear-end of the halberd, as it had been thrown by the Grimm from the great distance.

Showing its great strength the Mech was able to stop it in the air, and moved to grab it, only to find it being heaved into the air by the Beowolf. It had gotten a running start to throw its makeshift javelin, and had more than enough time to clear the rest of the distance with the machine occupied. With the spear catching the Knight in the chest the Beowolf shortened the handle and grabbed the mech off of the spear.

Stalking the Knight still on the ground with its comrade in one hand and the halberd in another it held up the axe to deflect a few of the shots the knight was trying to make. The fight was over, and all it had left was to deliver them to the General in a neat pile.

As it approached it thought of the match it had seen earlier in the day, the one between Yang and some Human. It had seen the entire match of course, arriving back from where it had been brought by Njala a few minutes earlier. It was interested to see the two fight, given the experience it'd had long ago during a **spar** with her. It had won, somewhat decisively, so seeing her fight a solo match was quite appealing.

The man had fought in a way that the Beowolf saw as rather interesting. He had the ability to move from the ground to the air during the fight which was smooth and swift, as well as having the ability to change the approach of his attacks on the fly, making him an unpredictable opponent.

Both he and Yang had impressive unarmed abilities. It wasn't something that the Beowolf could really understand in a tactile sense, despite its change in posture its arms and legs were not designed for a melee exchange of the sort. That said it did enjoy watching and made mental notes of the exchange for later if it were to ever come into contact with an opponent that fought that way in the future.

And then there was the end of the match.

The Beowolf had been told the rules of the fight, where humans and faunus could make war for a minute and see who was the victor. They would fight until it was no longer safe for them to do so, though the mechanism they used to decide that did not make sense to the Grimm. Despite the best attempts of Blake and Njala it didn't quite understand the invisible armor they claimed existed around them to protect them from harm, though it definitely could sense it in that it could detect the emotions of humans from a distance, something all Grimm could do.

The other way that one of them could be eliminated was from a ring-out, something that the Beowolf had seen examples of all throughout the tournament. Hit someone hard and even if they can get up, they get knocked out of the game. Literally.

So when the Beowolf saw Yang strike the man after he was down, it would have been confused if it wasn't… A Grimm. Deep down, beyond its intelligence and the mannerisms it had developed to interact with humans like it was an animal with a soul, it still maintained some elements of its nature. When the Beowolf saw Yang attack, it was less of a question of whether it was right, and more whether or not it mattered.

Yang had won, and no human sense of right or wrong truly pierced the part of the Beowolf which considered the breaking of the human's leg an act of dominance.

_But._

It had also stood above the masses below as their emotions crept up and over the walls of Amity like a miasma, a disease. Interlocking layers of betrayal, fear, disgust, anger, and all other manner of tempting effluence had crashed against the Beowolf like a great tidal wave. Behind even the layer of sanity which made up its armor some foul dregs of the human condition still pierced, watering the mouth of what some considered friend, reminding it of what it felt to be a Monster…

How good the hunger tasted, how exhilarating the thought of the hunt was, how much relief could be found standing in the gore of a body once inhabited by the alien 'soul'.

And in that small moment of a power fantasy it stood in the broken bodies of team RWBY, and the dream turned black, and it returned to the land of the living with its armor renewing its strength as a bulwark against the bloodlust.

It resolved, even as emotions that would have driven lesser members of its kind to savagery, that it would not allow itself to act in such a way. That thought, that image of the ultimate bliss of a monster, the death of those around it, had provided bitter repose. It was a monster; it was not delusional about that. But it wasn't a savage.

Thinking of that now, of the immense pain that the people felt when the man was struck down, the Beowolf calmed. Instead of crushing both of the machines underfoot to prevent any retaliation, ostensibly destroying them, it dropped the halberd to the ground and lifted the other mech roughly with its now-free hand.

Carrying them both, lashing and straining with all their might, it trudged back to the General who had a guarded expression, his eyes not revealing anything while the Beowolf could sense some conflict within the man. Suspicion mixed in with something hard, like anger but whittled down into some critical heat. He still expected something, believed that something was going to pass in front of his eyes.

And when the Grimm simply came to a stop in front of him and let the Mechs go free, something doused that heat, his expression going from hard to unguarded surprise in a flash, though his face didn't stay that way. His expression remained somewhat unreadable as he looked at the state of the Mechs, who both stopped combat in such close range to their General.

The Beowolf waited deliberately, even when the General looked to it for some sort of action. It simply leaned low down until its face was roughly at the same height as the human and let out a low huff, before backing away and sitting on its haunches, not moving to either of the mechs and no longer with a weapon.

The man's emotions suddenly became unreadable, no longer sharp or hidden, not some sort of dark indignation or resolution. A completely different emotion that the Beowolf didn't recognize, though they definitely were devoid of any ill intent.

The man left the room, walking out briskly, leaving the Beowolf alone with the machines. He was gone for a long enough time that the Grimm was able to collect the weapon and set it back inside the casket, and still have time to grab its yellow bag from the corner of the room and fiddle with the scroll.

When he returned the gray-haired man had his gaze to the ground, his emotions now being quite a bit more conflicted than before.

He spoke with a slowness that most humans use when speaking of something they feel they must do, but might not be able to fully explain _why_.

"There is someone I would like you to meet." Was all he said, before the door opened for a second time.

"Are You Sure That I Cannot Again Meet With Ruby?" Rang a mechanical voice that filtered in through the door, a pang of sadness behind it. Lonely, tired, sadness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I an asshole? I'm an asshole.


	28. Soaring, Flying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Beowolf gets to know Penny, and Penny gets to know trust.

**Beowolf:**

The Grimm regarded the small orange-haired girl who entered the room with a bit of suspicion. She seemed a little depressed, the air around her a bit heavy with a menagerie of feelings which ranged from ennui to forlornness. It surprised the Beowolf, the smaller humans rarely had such a cocktail of emotions rolling off of them.

The girl didn't even register the Grimm as she approached the General and started speaking with him in a low voice that the Beowolf couldn't pick up despite its best (passive) efforts. It seemed a strange choice for the man to bring the girl in here after the Beowolf dispatched the machines. Unless this was a charge of the silver-haired man which the Grimm was supposed to fight next, which it considered doubtful. Despite the cushy room that it had been furnished with it had the sneaking suspicion that it wasn't supposed to leave, and had been told a few times it shouldn't, the humans did not appear to trust it. The girls and their friends aside (and minus the blonde who looked like he might soil himself when the Beowolf got close) the people seemed to regard it with equal measures of caution and fear. The silver-haired man had much more complicated emotions, even now, and as the Beowolf scented the two it was clear he maintained that strange menagerie.

The Beowolf was blissfully unaware of the reasons, of course, because nobody had bothered explaining to it at any juncture _what_ a General was. The humans seemed to call him that from time to time and the machines spoke as such as well, but it didn't seem to be his name. T

This small linguistic error meant that the Grimm had no idea that the people who had chased it through Vale oh-so-long ago were actually under the guidance of Ironwood, nor that he actually controlled the machines.

Eventually the two broke off their huddle and the girl turned to look at the Grimm with a faux smile on her face. She took a few steps forward before bringing a finger to her chin and her expression twisted into one of confusion.

"That is a Beowolf." She stated with a hum, as if she had cracked some great mystery. "And it is Big."

Completely disregarding the girl's somewhat eccentric tone of voice the Grimm was a bit confused by the statement. All of what she said seemed quite obvious to the Beowolf, and judging by the small amount of disappointment coming off the silver-haired man it wasn't what he had been expecting either. Then, the girl started to march towards the Grimm until she had about halved the distance to about ten feet between her and it.

"Sal-U-Tations!" Her voice rang out, just a little too loud for the room, which actually surprised the Beowolf a little bit. "My Name is Penny Polendina, It Is A Pleasure To Meet You!"

She stepped _even closer_ until she was only a couple feet away and held her hand out for a handshake. The girl was so much shorter than the Beowolf that it had to lean down to see what she was doing. She was standing about as far away as most humans did when doing their little hand contact greeting. The Beowolf, however, was not a Human, and its arms were so long and it was so tall that it was a bit awkward. Taking a full step back it held a hand out that was as large as the girl's torso.

Seeming to understand her miscalculation the girl seemed embarrassed, but took one of the Beowolf's hand into her hand shook it vigorously. Even with the somewhat extreme movements of her arm the Beowolf only needed to rotate its wrist to accommodate. The girl stopped moving her hand and seemed to be waiting for the Beowolf to do something.

The Grimm was too busy contemplating to notice something as human as awkwardness. It was trying to remember if it had actually gone out of its way to touch a human since it arrived in Vale. It had fought some humans when it had tried to escape, carried that Huntress quite a distance actually, but that wasn't a choice so much as a measured action to survive. Even around the girls it hadn't actually touched them, they had played around with it. When Ruby decided that she was going to get a height advantage over her teammates she climbed with no assistance from the Beowolf, and it simply didn't intervene.

Coming back to the present it looked down at the girl and realized that she hadn't let go either. So they sort of stood there for a moment. Unbeknownst to the Beowolf Penny was supposed to maintain her grip until the other person released, and the Beowolf itself hadn't shook hands with anyone before.

**Penny:**

_Is There An Exception For Handshakes?_ Penny pondered as she filed through the reams of examples of social interactions she had stowed away somewhere in her qualitative banks. She knew the rule, be polite. And the Android definitely did not think that the Beowolf didn't know what it was doing. That would be rude and presumptuous, and those _definitely_ were not things she was supposed to be during interactions. _I never had to worry about this with Ruby_. She thought, feeling a bit down after thinking about the girl. But it was true, she found things came a lot easier to her when she was around the young Huntress.

And while Penny was definitely not thinking about being anywhere other than here, pretending that she wasn't aware that the handshake should probably have been over by now, the Beowolf's hand shifted. She immediately – though not rudely mind you – retracted her hand, happy to be free of that formality. Unless that was rude. _Am I being rude?_

But the Beowolf didn't chastise her, so she guessed that was a good sign. She didn't really consider the fact that Grimm didn't talk.

So now that their hands were free she was left to inspect the Grimm. She had seen it of course, and it wasn't like she had forgotten what it looked like – _That would be silly_ – she was just… A bit confused. Not that she was judging based off of a century's worth of combat data and information regarding Grimm or anything hasty like that but she didn't think Grimm were very… Pleasant.

Then, much to the girl's horror – _surprise,_ she corrected herself – the Beowolf held its hand out again. She looked at it for a moment before she instinctively grabbed the hand, this time placing her hand roughly in the hard part of the palm where most humans shook hands. The Grimm closed its hand engulfing her own and some of her forearm before giving it a shake.

It then let go.

And they stood for another second. Before the Grimm could try again Penny made a full turn so she could look to Ironwood with a quizzical expression. She still didn't really know why she was here, the General had simply told her to introduce herself. The General's lips twitched for a moment and suddenly Penny found her entire world upside-down, her legs pinned together as she watched the floor recede away.

 _That Is Abnormal._ She thought, as she was rotated around until she was roughly face-to-face with the Beowolf. She wasn't very concerned that her shirt was riding up a bit, and nothing in her systems was really running up red flags about what was going on. She wasn't under threat, even though she was looking at the rather large head of a species that was known to raze unprotected human settlements to the ground in a matter of minutes.

"Hello Again." She said, lifting raising her hand to wave at the Beowolf again. The Beowolf gave a bit of a nod, though it was so slight that she barely recognized it. It then did something strange, lifting up its hand so that it was in her line of sight, then lifting a thumb. She couldn't really recognize the thumb down sign from her perspective, so she twisted a bit so that she was looking at it from a bit of a better angle. Stretching like she was to the side to rotate would have been quite the strain on a human's muscles, but being a machine gave her some freedom to avoid those sorts of limitations.

Looking at it, then lifting her own hand to mimic it (now that she knew what the proper way up was) she showed the Beowolf the sign. It huffed something that she thought she caught, then looked past her at what she could only imagine to be the General. She tried to turn in the grip but found that the Beowolf wasn't really rotating to accommodate that. She was about to give up when she found the palm she was in rotate and let go, sliding her until she was able to stand with her feet on the Beowolf's hand and forearm.

She wobbled for a moment, but the fact she was even able to land on her feet at all was a testament to her inhuman reflexes. The Beowolf stood stock still until she had her footing and was able to sort of crouch on the Grimm. She saw the General taking this in with an unreadable expression on his face.

 _How Do They Do That?_ She wondered when Ironwood nodded, presumably to the Beowolf. Humans (and apparently this Beowolf) had the ability to sometimes just… Look at each other. She'd seen it dozens of times before. _How Can Someone Talk Without Speaking._ The Grimm probably knew, since it couldn't talk at all, but it wasn't something she had come close to mastering. She found it all so… Hard.

**Beowolf:**

Upon lifting the girl up by her ankles, the Grimm came to the somewhat startling realization that humans weren't as light as it thought they were. This Penny weighed significantly more than any human it had come across before. It had of course been in conflicts with humans in the past and that meant that it had a few chances to heft one or two of them up and throw them into trees or other such solid objects. None of them, even the heftiest, weighed as much as Penny did.

It was like trying to lift seven Rubys at once. Which seemed quite suspicious. It had further reason to find her odd because her exposed stomach had creases that circled around her waist. It seemed a bit strange, as they were similar to the plates used on the mechs so that they could lean this way and that. At least as far as it remembered, it hadn't been very focused on Robot booty during the recent ragdoll-ing.

When it flipped the girl, that was a bit of a cincher. She held on, which was surprising enough, and now it stood with her leaning on its arm and weighing the same as one of Atlas's machines.

With a nod from Ironwood confirming that it could continue – though with what it wasn't certain yet—it blew some air at Penny who tried to shift in its palm. She looked at it with some suspicion when it motioned for her to stand. Keeping its arm completely flat it watched the girl pull herself up until she had one foot on its palm and one on its wrist. She was standing straight now, her hands in front of her for balance.

The Beowolf tilted its head slightly and shifted its hand up and down half an inch – slowly enough that penny could still maintain her footing as she got used to the less-than-flat platform that was the Grimm's arm.

To be fair to the Beowolf in these next few moments, there are a few things to consider. First: The Grimm has not tested the strength of human Machines when being launched into the air. Second: Even if it did, it didn't know how well Penny would be able to. Third: The Beowolf wasn't concerned with either of these facts.

Not giving Penny much time to consider what it was going to do, the Beowolf stepped forward, moving its arm and bending at the elbow to keep her at the same height while it gave itself a little more room to work with. Then, using its normal slouch as a medium, straightened its legs and pushed upwards with the arm, trying to keep the girl's feet as level as possible. The new range in its shoulders helped a lot, and within half a blink the girl was rocketing above it, the only hint of her existence the peep of surprise that trailed behind her.

The Grimm felt a sharp tone of disapproval from the steel-haired man, but neither fear nor surprise. The Beowolf somehow doubted that the man had actually guessed, this, but it was more focused on the panic that had stopped its ascent but had yet to fall down.

There, high above, in the rows of rafters which criss-crossed the gymnasium, Penny could be seen holding onto the railing with one hand, looking down at the Beowolf with a fairly understandable scowl. A bit of a smile covered her face as she used her free hand to waggle a finger at the Grimm. There was a little bit of a gloat in her mannerism, and the Grimm generally knew that gesture to mean 'no'.

**Ironwood:**

Watching the pair, Ironwood admitted, was quite a bit like watching a kitten trying to learn to deal with a Great Dane. In this case, the Beowolf had chased – though more accurately _thrown_ – Penny into the tree and the automaton didn't believe that it would be able to catch her.

Ironwood himself didn't know the answer to that question. It seemed a bit strange for the Beowolf to be doing what it was, though he had his suspicions. He had caught in the few split seconds that Penny had bent her legs to brace for the movement, and even though the Grimm wasn't looking it seemed to know that she wasn't just being flung. It seemed to assume that the 'Girl' would be able to recover on her own.

And based on the rather patient look that it carried while its gaze was turned up, it was planning on catching her as well, and had from the beginning.

So it was a combat exercise. _An interesting choice._

He watched with interest when Penny seemed to finally give up and loose her grip after throwing him a pleading look, which he pretended not to notice. She fell the distance, but angled herself so that she wouldn't be landing near the Beowolf. She was taking the safe bet he assumed. _As a part of her conditioning she should find an open area. She has no reason to trust the Grimm, and would even be internally advised against such a close encounter._ He would have to admit, however, that such programming should have made it much more difficult for her to approach the Beowolf in the first place.

Shifting his attention to the Grimm, he saw that it side-stepped somewhat. It braced its legs before slowly extending an arm as if it were a baseball pitcher catching an easy fly ball, right in time for Penny to land in its outstretched hand. It was a swift movement with the speed penny was falling at, but the General caught the Grimm closing its fingers along one side to keep her from rolling out. _A good touch._

The Beowolf set Penny down and a quick once-over was enough to dispel any fears of damage, the android simply stepping down with an odd expression on her face.

 _That is one thing we couldn't do._ Ironwood admitted, bringing a hand up and ribbing a finger along his chin. He had seen the feed of the Grimm standing face-to-face with two Paladins and remaining unfazed. Seeing its lack of response to catching a four-hundred pound weight dropped from two stories up proved Ironwood's suspicions that the Grimm was even more solid than it appeared. The fact that it had so much inertia was interesting to him. The fact that it could throw huntresses like Penny like that with such ease meant that it would be an interesting variable in combat. Penny was fast enough without needing a boost, but a Huntress moving at that speed from ground to air, and knowing that they had a safe landing when they came down? That was a good angle. A Paladin couldn't do the same thing, even with comparable strength. Not at its size and lack of tactile response; the machine would crush the person. Maybe Oobleck was wrong after all.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by seeing an outline of Penny flipping laterally through the air. She looked like she had been launched up by the Beowolf and caught right after on the opposite side. She landed easily, and at this height the Grimm didn't need to compensate, standing at its full height with the girl in its palm like a doll. She was turned away from Ironwood, and he could see Penny fidgeting on the Beowolf's hand, kicking at air with her foot.

**Penny:**

The girl couldn't keep her smile off her face, even her attempts at hiding it from the Beowolf failing. The corners of her lips turned up and she found herself grinning, reaching out to touch the Grimm on the muzzle. The android had never really known of contact with people aside from fighting, and even now as she felt the smooth surface of the Grimm's mask she felt a little distant from the Beast. A part of her, however, was excited.

 _Very_ excited.

When she had been hanging onto the rafters she had been dreadfully embarrassed of the fact that she was going to probably cause a sizeable dent – maybe even a _hole_ – in the floor with her landing. She knew she wasn't exactly light, being 228.1 Kilograms meant that she wasn't exactly the lightest Huntress in amity. In fact, she knew she was a heavyweight. And she did _not_ want to be the one to crash into the floor at a high speed…

But she was _caught._ She _didn't_ fall. And even now, the Grimm flexing its fingers so that she had to shuffle from one foot to the other to stay balanced, she didn't need to touch the floor. She had implicit trust in the fact that the Beowolf wasn't going to get hurt, and she wasn't either.

She wobbled for a moment when the Grimm moved her so that she could stand on a shoulder, and she stepped on and looked for something to hold on to. The Beowolf was smooth even along the back, which she noted was different from diagrams of old Grimm that she had seen before, that had rows of spikes all along their backs. She didn't quite know what to do until a seam in the back of the Grimm's armor split, the armor burning away to show some thick hair. Taking a risk, because if she tore out the Beowolf's fur it would probably hurt quite a bit, she leaned down, grabbed a handful, and swung herself so that she was hanging on just between the shoulders.

Even digging the ends of her shoes in to stabilize herself she didn't sense any sort of shift from the Beowolf. It looked over its shoulder and she gave it a thumbs up, pulling one hand out so that she could do so. It held its own hand up so she could see it and raised its own thumb. Lowering her head so the Beowolf couldn't see, she smiled into the black fur, her traitorous smile flitting back to her lips, her eyes closing.

She held on tight when the Beowolf shifted in place, feeling its tensing before it lunged forward, the pull of force lifting her feet off of the Grimm's back. She felt the Beowolf speed forward before it leapt up. Managing to school her expression a bit more she looked up over the Grimm's shoulder to see it using momentum to carry it up the wall. She felt a small rush of excitement as it rotated against the wall, bending so that she was able to the girders above.

She heaved until she was standing on the Grimm's shoulders, bending at her knees. She coiled before leaping skyward, the combined momentum allowing her to soar in a shallow arc up to the ceiling. She couldn't truly feel the weightlessness that humans claimed in such flight, but as she reached the top of her arc she could feel a part of her programming will her to ready for the fall, imploring her to avoid the damage she would suffer if she didn't land correctly. A completely different, all-to-enticing one, told her to hold her breath.

She rolled onto her back mid-flight and took deep breaths as she started her slow downward descent, crossing her arms over her chest like she was planning on going to sleep. She felt gravity take hold and the soft pull of the earth as she slipped down through the air.

Her eyes closed, she felt herself rotate in the air and the familiar feeling of hair against her face. She smiled and interlocked her hands in the smooth strands as the Beowolf landed gently against the floor below. Taking breaths she didn't need she held the Grimm more tightly. For the first time since she was conscious of the world she felt like she could trust someone like this. Someone – or thing – that couldn't be harmed by her, didn't find her strange. It was a similar feeling to when she met Ruby for the first time, but in this tacit exchange it didn't feel any less potent.

She slid off the Beowolf's back and didn't try and hide her grin again when it turned to look at her. _I really am going to stay here when this is all over. No matter_ _ **what**_ _they say._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for getting this far AO3! I know this isn't really normal content for Archive from what I've seen, but I'm happy that people are showing interest. Hope you continue to enjoy!


	29. The Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is a True Grimm? One that doesn't pretend to 'feel', that doesn't pretend to 'know'? What is the thirst?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SUPER DISCLAIMER: I wrote this before watching episode 10. Therefore, this could be completely awful and I need to change things to fit with what's happening. If so, I'll take this down and post a new chapter. So don't get too attached to this one, alright?

**Penny:**

The android fingered the loop around her neck, drawing a digit along the black cord until she reached the sharp edge of the pendant. She was standing in the waiting area for the finalists, biding her time until she knew who exactly she was going to be fighting. She was in a bit of a pleasant mood, still buzzing a bit from her playing with the Beowolf. Neither needed sleep, though Penny required some diagnostics before the next match started, so they were able to jump around until the early morning.

Before she had left the Beowolf had given the necklace to her, and she was happy for it. She hadn’t ever really received a present from anyone, not that she expected gifts or anything. And even though the Beowolf’s gift was a bit strange, she was still more than happy to accept it.

It also gave her a chance to do something with her hands. She knew that people tended to fidget and such, and she had received some critique for her… Well, rather robotic mannerisms. Notably, being absolutely still.

 _But now, I can fiddle!_ She thought to herself, rolling the fang between her fingers, glancing down to look at the roughly inch-long piece of bone. The cord was pulled through a hole in the tooth length-wise, meaning that the sharp inner edge was parallel to her chest. She held it up to inspect for a moment, wondering at the sharpness of that edge.

In the corner of her eye she could see Ciel eyeing her with a strange look on her face. Penny was used to seeing a sort of blank look from the human. She tended to be rather quiet and prim, her voice being a bit too flat for Penny’s liking. But right now, she was looking a bit… Sour?

She turned to ask but saw that the girl was looking only at the necklace, her lips slightly upturned even in her professional façade. Before she could ask the randomizer above announced that she was going to be fighting against Pyrrha Nikos. Penny felt a surge of excitement and bounced to her feet, beaming out towards the ring.

Before she could go anywhere Ciel stepped forward, her expression souring noticeably as she held out her hand flat. _I’d Hoped she had Forgot._ Penny thought, pouting a bit as she pulled the necklace off and carefully bunched the cord. She placed it in Ciel’s hand and looked away, unhappy that she couldn’t take it with her.

Regardless, she stepped out onto the walkway that would take her to Pyrrha. She still smiled, happy to be able to spar like this. It wouldn’t be as much fun as light night, she was sure about that, but it would still be fun to practice with the famous Pyrrha Nikos! Regaining her smile, she marched on, wondering whether or not she would be able to see Ruby again after. Maybe the Beowolf too.

**Beowolf:**

The Grimm was standing in the apartment with a finger inside its mouth. Its maw was wide open as it prodded the top right fang at the front of its mouth. It felt fine, and applying force didn’t do anything, so it would probably be fine. It didn’t bite many things, and its mouth was mostly for huffing at people, so it really didn’t need any of the teeth in its mouth… But it maintained the mouth all the same just in case.

So here it was, filling an entire bathroom and leaning down to try and see into its own mouth. The washroom was large, but certainly not meant for people the size of the Beowolf. At its height it couldn’t see its head in the mirror if standing, so it had to crouch down to see into its mouth.

Everything looked normal, or so it assumed since it had never had used a mirror before to look into its mouth. Of course it had seen itself before in water and when it had wandered into the washroom before, but…

Growling low it decided it wasn’t worth contorting into some shape to be able to see better.

It might have been hasty for it to use one of its own teeth, but it wasn’t like it had many choices. When it had given the cecaelia at the falls a shard of its own armor it had done so without any real time to prepare, so a piece from its arm was all it could think of. For Penny, it had seen before that some humans wore animal pieces around their neck, so it made sense that a Beowolf’s tooth might be considered similarly fashionable. Despite the rather large leap in logic, and completely unaware of the fact that giving someone your _teeth_ for a present is incredibly _bizarre_ , it had managed to extricate one of its own, then loop a thread of sinew through it that it took from its arm.

Njala had, upon its return, commented on the fact that the Beowolf was lucky the girl was an awkward robot, else the gift would have been promptly rejected, probably with some screams of terror. It had brushed these claims off, not understanding how a necklace like some other humans had was some sort of great affront. What it didn’t realize was that if a human had tried to pull a stunt like that it would have been excruciatingly painful and they would have been forced into a medical ward with psychotherapy.

But for the Beowolf, those mortal concerns were below it. Or above it, depending on your perspective. This still left it with a question it never really answered itself; just how quickly could it heal? It had been several hours since Penny and the Wolf had split ways and the damage it had done to its mouth was easy enough to fix, the tooth simply formed and hardened. The incision in its arm wasn’t bad, it healed rather quickly as well because the Grimm didn’t naturally have sinew in the first place, the red void on the inside carrying out the complicated tasks of locomotion. So now, it was fine.

Fine, that is, aside from the hole in its back.

It had exposed its back to the android in order to give her a handhold in its fur. That worked just fine, and it didn’t really feel the weight as it had been jumping and leaping around, but it was starting to cause a bit of a problem. It wasn’t really worried about being attacked, its hide was still plenty strong to be able to deal with some rogue assailant.

But human emotions were a completely different issue.

At any one time the only parts of its body which weren’t armored were the areas next to its ears and the cracks near the neck or arms which allowed for more fluid movement. That was enough that when Yang had broken someone’s leg the emotions in the coliseum had it salivating. Right now, with its entire back open to the feelings of humans it made things a bit dangerous.

Plodding down the hallways the Grimm looked at the TV for a moment, contemplating, before turning it on with the remote, as Blake had taught it. The screen lit up with the stage that was down below and it eyed it for a moment to figure out who was fighting. Judging by the profiles it could see that it was Penny and Pyrhha and it paused. It had fought Pyrrha before and hadn’t found her a terribly arduous opponent, so it had been surprised when she made it to the finals – despite the fact that Ruby and company seemed to think that was an obvious outcome.

It took a seat on the couch and could hear the creaking complaint of the wood under its weight. It ignored the noise and kept its eyes trained on the TV, wondering who exactly had the advantage. It had not had a chance to fully spar with Penny, but it was fairly convinced that she was stronger than Pyrrha. She was certainly more hefty, but was able to leap and bound considerable distances from a crouch. It had seen her blades near the end, and the way they moved was hard to follow, so she seemed like a complicated opponent, the sort that would catch you off-guard.

Its ears twitched under its armor when it heard a commotion outside, the noise from below traveling up. For some reason it took about a minute for the TV to catch up to what was going on outside, so the Grimm tended to watch from the observation deck as opposed to the big screen.

The sound was muted, it had been from when Njala was occupying the room during its outing and the Beowolf didn’t know how to turn it on so it watched in silence, catching the odd noise that filtered its way up through the coliseum. Pyrrha proved herself to be an effective fighter, performing feats which the Wolf saw as patently absurd. Jumping off of one of Pyrrha’s swords? The very theory of it was ridiculous, but the Grimm would have to admit that it had seen humans to stranger things before.

Penny’s blades seemed to move on their own, another human absurdity that it had seen the night before, but not to the extent it was visible here. They moved about the place in fluid motions, acting as if each blade had a mind of its own. They didn’t individually seem too dangerous, the slow and deliberate way they moved, but the Grimm knew not to pass judgement until the match was over.

It was watching Pyrrha have her weapons get knocked away when it heard a crunch from outside, like metal being shorn by metal. It was immediately followed by a wave of shock, strong enough that the Beowolf could feel its expression curl into a snarl behind the armor. It stood, ignoring the screen as it slunk over to the observation deck to see what the ruckus was about. It slid down the corridor and the screens came alive, showing an aerial view of the scene.

It glanced at one and saw a very different situation from before. Pyrrha, unarmed, standing a short distance away from the dismembered remains of one Penny. Her legs were facing a different way from her torso, her arms cast aside like trash, blades piercing the ground. It ignored the sight for a moment, stepping up to the window and looking down at the carnage below.

What it had seen on the screen was accurate, and the palpable shock was humming in the air. Tension was high and the Grimm knew what was coming next. It had seen the result of humans seeing another of their kind with a leg broken, but a murder? It would only be a moment before they realized what they were seeing, if the shock was anything to go by, and when the reality of the situation settled in it was likely that the results would be…

The Grimm gripped the railing against the window tightly, the metal giving way under its hold.

It knew, without a doubt, that with its armor not complete it would have no resistance against laying waste to the people below.

So it was only a matter of time. It was far beyond being worried about what was going to happen to Penny now, uncertain as it was of the fate of Machines that were injured like she was. She didn’t bleed, so it was possible that such damage was not terminal, it was impossible to tell. And it wasn’t worth forcing thought, so it turned all its thoughts inward. It pondered, in the same way that a man falling to his death asks, whether or not this is the end.

The emotions that rose through the ground felt like it was standing in a cauldron of water, and a fire was being stoked underneath. At first there was the horrified realization, it spread like wildfire, tingling against its armor but scathing its back. It burned, but was nothing it hadn’t felt before. The metal under its hand keened further under the grip, squealing like some animal and it could hear a distant door open and shut.

Before it could do anything to warn the person to stay away, the fear it.

If the anticipation had been fire, the fear was a cold nothing. It felt the shock roll away like a wave as more and more people realized what they were looking at. Even as the shock slipped away the Beowolf could sense the rising tide, and it waited.

The peace was a mere illusion, it was pretending it couldn’t feel anything while the humans below worked themselves into hysteria. It was old, it had learned to ignore things, to live a life devoid of humans for the sake of preservation. It _could_ wait this out, it _could_ resist temptation, it _could_ —

When the first child in the audience began to wail, that peace was shattered. Humans are strange things like that. In the face of the most obvious of atrocities many can remain stoic, their expressions unwavering and cold while they fight desperately with their emotions, their own need to remain upright in the storm.

But all it takes is a moment of weakness, or someone who doesn’t understand. Someone who cannot pretend that their entire life isn’t crumbling in front of them and will never be the same. The Grimm knew that feeling, had felt it before when it had crushed lives under its heel, when it had been a monster beyond recognition which had thrust children into adulthood, when one chooses to be unnaturally, unnecessarily cruel. It is that moment when people realize that the world cannot be ignored, that their bulwarks and their ‘it won’t happen to mes’ fall to pieces.

It’s like learning mortality all over again. Like realizing you’re helpless. That god doesn’t remember your face. Like the devil has its hand around your throat.

And to the species who could feel too much of this alien hemlock, it was like being force-fed meth through the eyes, like being skinned in a pool of ice, like being flayed on a bed of needles.

It’s what turns the ‘it’ into something much more dangerous. It’s enough to turn a man mad. It’s enough to turn a man sour. It’s enough to make a wolf forget that one day in the summer it had given up murder to learn. It’s enough to make that Wolf command genocide from the gates of hell.

**A Creature Grimm:**

It waited.

And Waited.

And Waited.

And Breathed.

It took in the scent of thousands of men, women, children, the enfeebled, the strong…

It tasted blood in the air,

Fear, anxiety, disgust.

A man faints, his children cry.

It sticks a tongue as black as night and ridged with blades out into the air,

                It can taste it, the shearing of flesh from spine.

                The mortal horror – the children soft and malleable, crushed like rotten plums

It breathes.

And breathes.

And waits.

                For a more opportune moment, a more… _Intimate_ entrance.

                From a height, to be seen and feared.

                To find a body like a corpse, to tear them,

                _Eat them_ ,

                Spread their gore like water,

                Bathe in filth,

                Feel the disturbance.

There was no human here that could stop it.

No gun, no blade, no hope, no _death_.

                It could leisurely carve their bones from their flesh,

                Pull through the seams of man,

                Hang them like puppets,

                Remind them.

                _Remove_ them.

It breathes again.

It can taste it,

Sweet, sweet slaughter.

Like humans pick fruits from trees,

The Grimm will take souls from Flesh.

                Render the mortal,

                Reclaim it.

                Silence the suffering, the sweet ache.

It inhales.

It exhales.

It stands, it leers, it throws its head back in ecstasy.

                What glory is in passivity?

                What _dishonor_ is pleasure?

It inhales.

It closes its eyes.

It licks its lips.

It pulls its hand free of the metal.

And then… It heard.

A voice, spoken softly, for it.

                It turned, it saw, nothing.

                Cold, silver eyes.

                Sparkling Gold.

                Humble Black.

                Proud White.

It exhaled.

The clarity returns, unbidden. ‘It’ is still the monster, ‘it’ would cleave a man in twain, remove his lungs and feast on drowned air. But it was awake. It regards the nothing with an upturned muzzle, with dead eyes. It asks the question of Oblivion, a question it cannot hear, and it does not know.

There is no response, from nothing, for nothing.

Silver Eyes.

It inhales.

In the dark, dark pits of its heart, an ember catches, lighting a flame in its chest. Of rage. Unbidden emotions not kin of a monster well up, and it snarls at the void, to see a woman with a metal arm and dark eyes. She looks down at it, dismissing it, her face a mask of disgust. She leans down, as if speaking to a child, down at the laid-low Beowolf.

Her words are muddled by the short distance, as if the tones and the letters got lost along the way, but something sticks out to it. Something cold, comforting against the fire.

Genocide.

The void collapses, leaving it alone. The clarity passes.

It’s in the air, then it’s not, it’s standing, bathing in humanity.

**Ruby Rose:**

She could hardly breathe.

Seeing wasn’t any easier, not through the tears. The display had long gone black but she could still see, behind her eyes, the crumpled body of Penny. Of – of her friend. Murdered. By her friend, by someone that Ruby trusted. She knew, she knew deep down that this wasn’t Pyrrha’s fault so she wasn’t able to blame her but…

 _Penny wanted to come here, she, she wanted to live with us._ Ruby sniffled and wiped away some of the rears. _She, she was supposed to be, but… She won’t, she’ll never get to…_

Her sniffles broke off into wailing, her body betraying her careful exterior, she cracked down the middle and she couldn’t help the cold that was seeping into her skin. She felt like she was in agony, as if she was being torn in two. She could have _stopped_ this. She could have prevented any of this from happening, she could have stopped Emerald and---

Before she could drive herself further into hysteria she felt a hand on her back, a hand too large to be Human. She didn’t respond, rolling desperately into a ball as she tried to keep herself together. She felt herself being picked up, being cradled in an arm as she felt movement, then was placed back on the ground. She looked up to see herself on the coliseum stage and looked around wildly.

She caught sight of the Beowolf, but it didn’t… It didn’t look right.

It was facing away from her, its head surveying the crowd, which had been driven to silence. In the distance they could hear fighting, though Ruby was too busy wondering how the Beowolf had managed to get down here without wearing anything to cover it.

What was strange was that it had red markings criss-crossing its entire body. She had noticed a while ago that it had very few, but now its armor looked like it was soaked red, stained after fighting.

After murder.

She felt some fear well its way to the surface, suddenly aware of the state of the crowd and herself. She scrambled for a moment before a sharp look from the… From the Beowolf pinned her to the ground. Her breath caught as it approached, pulling her up by a hand before covering her ears. She was about to wiggle free when she heard an inhalation of air that sounded like a get engine.

And then, she felt Amity shift underneath her feet, as if the entire coliseum were about to fall from the sky.

**World of Remnant: The Roar**

                While the cries and roars of the Grimm are most commonly associated with Beowolves, all Grimm have the ability to create some utterings. From the most enticing lyre of the Mer to the positively catastrophic bellowing of a Behemoth, the range and intent of each is different. For the Mer they use their silky voices just as legends of yore describe, to pull the unwitting to a watery grave, while the Behemoths use their own cry to rally Grimm for attack. Each call seems to have some purpose, though even with the expanded observation techniques devised in Vale, there are some sounds which aren’t understood.

                The creep, for example, makes a guttural noise which is quite distinct, but does not carry. It neither carries a threat of attack -- beyond the normal intent of a Grimm – nor does It seem to communicate with its kin. Furthermore, they make the noises even when humans or other provocations are not present, leading to postulations that they use their noises for some reason independent of each other.

                But probably the most profound mystery among the Grimm and their vocalizations is that of the Beowolf’s howl. Quite possibly the most iconic noise known to the public, the pealing and soulful howl of the Beowolf is infinitely more dark than the common Wolf, it is also the least well understood. In a particularly large group there is usually one Beowolf Alpha which will call the others to a location, sometimes for no reason at all. All Grimm that are part of its group – including lesser Grimm which are close by – will form up near the Alpha while it moves. This contradicts earlier assumptions which claimed that the Beowolves all used their howl to instill fear in humans before, or during, the hunt. This new data seems to imply that even though Beowolves are understood to be pack Grimm, they are not naturally inclined to remain together.

                If the Alpha is killed and another Grimm does not take its place the group will dispand into much smaller cabals, some going entirely solo. As a single Beowolf is seen as not an imperative threat to the kingdom, or any well-equipped group of travelers, it could be that the Alpha has noticed that singular attacks are useless. So, to have more success in the future, it is thought that the Alpha will use its call in order to bring all Grimm nearby to it in order to maintain a small army. Strong Beowolves, particularly Old ones, have been seen to shepherd thousands of Beowolves at a time with a great din.

                Many Grimm scholars have taken this to mean that during large assaults on Human or Faunus infrastructure, the main culprits are Beowolves and the Grimm which are pulled into the pack. For quite a long time it was thought that this type of beast was simply more aggressive than the others, like Ursa or Boarbatusks. In reality, it seems that the Beowolf is simply the most well organized group of Grimm in the wild, allowing them more success where disparate Grimm would fail.

 **AN:** For those who were interested in the one-shot I did for this story, the events which lead down that path were based on Ciel never taking the necklace from Penny. I’ll leave it to you readers to decide what that means.


	30. The End

**Beowolf:**

There are very few words which translate well into the half-truths used to describe existence. Hunger, fear, hate, grief – all provide somewhat discouraging simultaneity. Do you hunger for sustenance, or for need? Do you fear something which you face, or something intangible? Do you hate something, or does something light fire in your chest? Do you grieve for something you have lost, or for something you might've had, if the world was different?

This deconstruction, this impurity, masks any truth when one describes the Beowolf, surrounded by nothing, in Amity. That nothing, heretofore described as a 'lacking', was deep, and it was dark.

The Grimm moved from its station as the gate to said nothingness, and walked a slow trudge out of the deep bowl of the coliseum, moving with the same lethargy as a funeral procession, but not the as a grieving widow, as the murderer who got away with it. It who got to watch their handiwork play through the faces of the crowd they had brought together today. So maybe, instead of saying that the Grimm walked as if it was following a coffin, it walked as if it had brought calamity to the hearts of loved ones.

When it left that hollow it dashed along the plain walls of the vomitorium and cast its eyes about with some consternation, realizing that it had never seen this level of the construct before. Fortunately, what it did see gave it some 'Hope'. It regarded the edge of the outer ring where it stood with some wariness before approaching the guard rail. Below, several hundred feet below in fact, the surface of Remnant was being set alight by chaos. Its muzzle and chest were buffeted with equal amounts of fear and anxiety, and it growled at the mixture.

From what it could see, Beacon and the outer regions of Vale were in the most upheaval, while the city itself was safe. In the back of its head, wiggling like a maggot in the bottom of rotting trash, was the influence which commanded it to seek out and destroy as many Grimm as possible. It could feel the force of it, though it could hold its body steady even through the pain it exerted. The emotion which had driven it as it slaughtered hordes of its own kind… Was bizarre. Altogether too human for it to even describe to itself, and that worried it. Feeling the Nothing seep out from where it had left the intangible remains of the Grimm, it grit its teeth and peered into the sky. It caught sight of a dark shadow in the distance floating towards Vale and let out a huff.

A Dragon. _That_ , would be an issue for Humans.

Knowing that nobody would return for it, and also aware of the fact that attempting to commandeer a human flying machine would end in failure, the Grimm stepped back into the Nothing and gave it a large amount of running room before the edge. Then, steeling itself, it lunged towards the edge at full speed, fully intending to save it some distance later on.

Then, it sent itself flying off into the more traditional nothing which was the air. It rotated so it was falling roughly straight, feet-first. It had never considered whether or not it could survive the fall. As air whistled past at increasing speed it neither had confidence nor doubt in its abilities, even as it was a Beowolf, and flying tended to be the domain of, say, Nevermores.

Speaking of, as it fell it caught sight of a Nevermore flying underneath it. As dark as it was against the dim ground below, it was only a glint of light off of its mask which warned the Wolf that impact was imminent.

From a distance, the effect would have looked strange. The Beowolf, large as it was, still couldn't hold a candle to the size of the Nevermore which had a wingspan of approximately sixty feet. Regardless, the effect was like dropping a bowling ball on top of a sparrow, and the bird-like Grimm gave a shrill shriek as its momentum suddenly shifted from forward to downwards. Where the Beowolf landed, between the Nevermore's wings, would have killed an animal with the crushing of a spine, but thankfully for the Beowolf, Grimm didn't have that particular evolutionary fault.

The Beowolf gripped the stalk of some of the broad feathers and dug its heels in as the Crow spun in the air to try and dislodge whatever offending being dared to strike it from above. Whipped around, the Wolf's grip slipped a bit further before its impromptu steed settled and continued on its northbound path, seemingly confident that it had dislodged the relatively diminutive Grimm.

The Beowolf stalked up the Crow's spine until it was able to see over its shoulder, fighting against that impulse in the back of its head to try and kill the Nevermore in the air. As _reasonable_ the chances for success were for such an attack, it felt it may as well wait until it was closer to Beacon before attempting something as stupid as mid-air-combat with a particularly large bird. It couldn't help but start determining the best way to kill the beast while it was in the air, which would probably be to drive a clawed hand into the beast's eyes and grab the brow of the mask from the inside and pull. Such a trauma would—

The Wolf shook the image from its head, growling to itself. This foreign influence was starting to grate it more deeply than it had first suspected, and a sudden urge to tear out the back of its own skull to remove the offending entity overwhelmed it, if only for the breadth of a microsecond. It regained its composure after the Nevermore started swerving again in pain as the Beowolf drove claws into the thick hide of the beast, the top of its palm already submerged in the inky black.

It knew that the nevermore wouldn't be tricked a second time so as the great Crow swerved back and forth the Grimm grabbed handfuls of feathers in each hand to hike itself further along the 'spine' of the creature. No matter how hard the Nevermore bucked, the Wolf's firm grasp prevented it from being knocked clean off, and it if the risk ever became too great it would pause and dig in for a moment to let the flip or roll pass. Wind tore at the Nevermore's back, and more than once one of the feathers would tear loose and the Grimm would lose its balance, flailing for a moment to try and stay upright.

Finally, the Beowolf reached the neck of the beast, and set to work. The Grimm began rolling its neck feebly, a sense of panic obvious in its movements as it realized that the Beast was on a mission. The sudden bobbing was nowhere near as disorienting as the weaving and rolling, so the Beowolf picked up some speed and tried to leap the remaining distance to the mask of the Crow.

The avian monster proved to be unwilling to go down without a fight, and with a flash it pulled its wings in close to its body and spun, its belly now to the Wolf as its great maw opened wide to try and swallow the Beowolf whole.

**The World:**

The Nevermore righted itself and flew for nearly another Kilometer before something appeared to be wrong with it. It started twitching in the air, its head jerking side to side before one of its eyes bulged out of the socket. The eye exploded into a black mist as a white and clawed hand reached out and grabbed the mask from the inside, another hand bursting from another eye to do the same.

There was a pause, where the Nevermore should have screamed in pain, but instead there was only a thunderous crack as its cranium peaked out. The mask between its eyes was cracked down the center all the way to its beak, the force of the pull cleanly tearing the Grimm's skull in twain.

Instantly, the Grimm evaporated into mist, the foreign agent that had lodged itself in its mouth resuming its fall to the ground far below.

**The Beowolf:**

With dispatching the Nevermore came a rush of euphoria which felt as natural as oil replacing blood in the veins. Its teeth grit as it tried to overcome the foreign sensation, thought it was quickly dispelled when the Beowolf got a rather sudden, though probably not unexpected, reunion with solid ground.

Crashing at high speed into the top of an automobile, the sudden cacophony of metal crunching brought an end to the tingly sensations which had filled its body. Lifting itself from the wreckage it cast its eyes about, looking to the sky to see if it could determine exactly where it had landed. The fact it was standing on one of these human contraptions implied that it wasn't on Beacon, and instead it was somewhere farther away. To its left it could see some large tower rising up, more Nevermores flying overhead while one or two Huntsmen fought with smaller Grimm on the ground.

Pulling itself from the wreckage the Beowolf grit its teeth, having a foreign sense of déjà vu with its surroundings. Before it could step too far, however, it found itself grind to a halt. The pull to fight its own kind was strong, strong enough in fact that it almost found itself salivating as if it was hunting humans as a youngling again. No, this pull was much more… Basic.

A tongue dipping out of its mouth and running along its lips and teeth it felt consciousness fade again as a delectable scent overcame its senses, dulling even the forced ecstasy.

 _Evil._ Malicious intent. Hate. Its chest swelled as it breathed in the sweet stench of the rotten human. Something rank.

Something like a chuckle escaped its mouth as it snatched a passing Boarbatusk and lifted it into the air, the weak Grimm struggling to evade the massive hands which were digging into its flesh. The Beowolf leaned down and opened its mouth wide before clamping down on the other Grimm's stomach, swiftly tearing through the soft flesh before manually ripping the helpless lesser being in two down the middle.

It relished the sensation in its mouth, a bubbling and dissolving flesh which was all too cold. A stark contrast to the fantasy of soft human muscle splitting under-

It dropped both halves of the swiftly-dissolving Grimm before clenching its fists, the armor of its gauntlets squealing against the force of its own grip.

_Genocide._

_Murder._

_Placate the Parasite._

Its choices seemed clear. The bloodlust hadn't been able to pierce through the mantra pulsing in its head. It could tell, in that moment, that it wasn't truly in control. It was a Grimm, but… It couldn't.

Mentally determining the best way out of the city the Beowolf turned in that direction and dashed, running as quickly as it could. As it did so it could feel the worm rebel, somehow the Grimm's intent translated to it. The Grimm would leave Vale, and it would do so as soon as possible.

It was the only way to be free.

Its mind cast for the previous weeks and found, to its astonishment, a void.

It had reclined like some human sloth in Amity, much like a common _pet_ , and had done so without its knowing. Something, something impulsive, something sinister had managed to tame it. The proof, ignoring _everything_ that had happened in the past while, was in that moment where it chose to sate its lust with the flesh of kin rather than man. Than the rotten soul that had hidden itself somewhere above, somewhere far from sight. By its _right_ the Beowolf should have taken that human's life with the speed of snapped jaws or the long and drawn out cruelty of a talon slitting arteries. Not… Not Mercy.

Humans _craved_ mercy. They _desired_ it. Grimm did not deal in such platitudes.

That was why the Beowolf felt nothing at Yang's injuring of the young man, because she had one, his life was hers, for the affront of _existing_ at the same _time_ as her was enough to warrant mortal combat. A challenge against life was meant to be met with life, tooth and claw whetted and blunted against bone, not… _Mercy_. Not unless _begged_ for and even then, under the discretion of the victor.

That's why Beowolves let no Humans live. Because their King, the rightful leader of the Beowolves, did not see the value in a human that groveled offense.

That's what the _White Wolf_ thought. Believed. But that belief, that instinct was taken away from it in Amity, at some point by some unknown power which had managed to worm its way into its mind like a parasite. Like the worm which was like hot metal bending and dripping into the cavity at the back of the Grimm's mind. It had been influenced. Controlled.

Grimm aren't Controlled. No, the Beowolf was not a being to be controlled. _It_ existed. _It_ dictated. Not… Pleasantries forced from the back of the mind.

It rounded a corner, bounding down another street as its muzzle curled into a scowl. The Humans, 'RWBY', when had they started sounding clear? When had their words penetrated its mind? Its incomprehension?

It didn't matter. Memories were too clouded to determine, but those words which it did remember were no less nonsense than the bleating of a sheep, or the cries of a crow. Despite this, it _remembered_ , somehow, some honeyed truths which were doctored for ears never made to understand man. Meanings spun from silver, died in white, fed to it like a human child.

Its very understandings, fabrications.

It approached the wall and stood on its precipice, unworried about being seen as the Humans were too busy looking inward to notice a Grimm escape. It was hanging on something it remembered, one of the few clear things in the past days.

Penny. The young Android, a girl, a machine. She had explained to it, at some early point in the morning, that it was planning on being human—enough that maybe one day she could live at Beacon. When the Beowolf did not understand, she clarified. She thought that Humanity brought a sort of free will that would give her control. It might give her the strength, the _authority_ to stand up to people who would take her choice away from her. It might give her a reason to keep fighting, a reason to believe that she might one day be able to stay with her friend, with Ruby.

The Beowolf turned its head slightly, the parasite in its mind now dull and unresponsive at this great distance. It wondered, absentmindedly, if Ruby herself expected the Beowolf to be 'more human'. It then wondered, just as sardonically, whether or not Ruby would have appreciated that the Beowolf's newfound humanity, a rage probably born of Penny's passing, lead to the abject slaughter of three humans.

There was no satisfying answer, not for it, and not for the girl. But as it turned back to the Forest, and leapt into the shadows.

**The World:**

And so, the White Wolf disappeared from the Kingdom of Vale. The only proof that it ever existed was the Halberd left behind in Amity, and the vague memories that some young Huntsmen and Huntresses had of the strange beast.

Ruby Rose knew that the Beowolf would have left no corpse, so when she heard that the Grimm had disappeared she feared the worst… Then she forgot, as the much more pressing matters in the world took hold. There was little time for young Huntresses to dedicate to memories of a Beast that was in their lives for short months. If someone might have asked, they would have denied such a heartless claim, but as time wore on, even the strongest of memories were no clearer than any other mundane event in first year.

For the Grimm's part, much remained unresolved when it was rendered helpless at the Transmit System tower. A Beast, ancient in all rights, immune to the burden of flame and proven stoic against the force of one Yang Xiaolong. As a soulless being even Emerald Sustrai would be unable to press any great advantage against the beast.

Mayhap, in another world, another time, if the Grimm had had some shred of humanity, it might have challenged the three. In some worlds, it lost, and the world continued as if it had never existed in the first place, our story much the same aside from a more somber ending note. But in a few, a select few, the world might have changed. It _might_ have been different, but there is no writing on the wall about parallel universes, or things that _might_ have happened but didn't.

But that is a story for another time, as this one closes with a remark scrawled on a page in an old Mantle General's diary, on the day her kingdom fell:

_It is only in the closing days of this war that I realize how small our differences are. How we're all afraid. None of us want to be alone in fear, but we're all too scared to band together and make merry when night comes. If we continue this way, we will founder, and drown. Only a different path can set us on a bright new course. Until then, grasp your loved ones and hold them close, lest we lose each other when the night comes._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Some of you might be surprised, actually all of you are probably surprised that the story ends here, on such a disappointing note. No resolution, no victory, no valor. The final act for the Beowolf before leaving Vale to spare the lives of those who would bring ruin to not only the Kingdoms, but to Remnant at large. But if it had any humanity, its rage and its bloodlust would have driven it to murder, in god-knows-what capacity.
> 
> There was never going to be a happy ending. It was never in the cards.
> 
> I'll be back soon, but for now, thank you for reading Howling at the Moon.


End file.
